


The Spectacular Spider-Man: No More

by thetypingavocado



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Mac Gargan Scorpion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:08:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25432894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetypingavocado/pseuds/thetypingavocado
Summary: Peter's life seemed to crash and burn before his very eyes. The reason for his misfortune is his life as Spider-Man. Nearly everyone in his life has turned their back on him. So, he quit the life of the Webslinger. Until a few unlikely allies come to Peter's aid during his time of misfortune. But will that be enough to keep Peter from abandoning his life as a crimefighter?
Relationships: Liz Allan/Peter Parker, Peter Parker/Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson
Comments: 9
Kudos: 37





	1. Prologue

PROLOGUE - The Misfortune of Peter B. Parker

Life’s one hell of a rollercoaster. Especially for these past few months for both Spider-Man and Peter Parker.  
After the Green Goblin’s apparent demise, the Spectacular Spider-Man became wanted for the murder of Norman Osborn. The news of his death spread like wildfire. Days later, the New York Police Department has been told to arrest the web-slinging vigilante at any chance they get. They’ve been ordered to use lethal force if necessary. So, let’s just say being wanted for the murder of the CEO of the biggest company in the biggest city of America, isn’t the best feeling for a high school student.  
As expected, the chief editor of the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson, was ‘jollier than a schoolgirl,’ when he found out Spider-Man was wanted for arrest. He’s always been convinced that the vigilante was a menace in a deeper criminal conspiracy, but this put a smile on his face. It’s been his dream, to see that wall-crawling menace put behind bars.  
Back then, when the Daily Bugle published attention-grabbing headlines about Spider-man, the readers didn’t believe it. The public didn’t believe in a single word. They’re convinced that the wall-crawler was their protector and hero. However now, readers look back to all the Spider-Man headlines and realized that they’ve been wrong. Now, they’ve been convinced that The Spectacular Spider-Man is a menace to the entire city.  
Before the people of New York stood by Spider-Man's side, being their savior. Their bright light in the sky in all the darkness. But with an act of murder on Spider-Man’s hands, they’ve turned their back on him. Every time he would swing around the city, citizens would criticize him. One woman even proclaimed that he was no better than the criminals and villains he’s put away. Several people didn’t even want to be saved by him. They wanted to be saved through legal force, not by an unlawful vigilante.  
And when he did save them from harm… they would be disgusted by him. Disgusted that a murderer even laid a finger on them.  
Consequently, Peter wouldn’t patrol around the city as often as he would. Why would he need to anyway? Crime rates in New York have plummeted to an all-time low, ever since the Green Goblin.  
Plus, the city that once loved Spider-Man, cheered him on during all his battles and supported him when the Bugle criticized him, now despises the Spectacular Spider-Man.

Now, what else can go wrong?  
Well, his junior year didn’t end the way he desired it to…  
First, to no one’s surprise, his cheerleader ex-girlfriend, Liz Allan didn’t speak to him again since their break up. At one point, she pretended he didn’t exist and didn’t make any more tutoring appointments with him for the rest of the year. Occasionally, they would awkwardly run into each other, without a word said. Except, every time Peter glared at the cheerleader, she seemed all happy with her cheer squad, but he saw through her mask. Her eyes revealed it all.  
But it was all a charade, from her laughter to her fake smile, all of it. For the rest of the year, she put on a thick mask to indicate that she's fine. Even though she wasn’t, she was only broken. In short, “King Geek” broke the cheerleader’s heart… damn, look how the tables turned.  
Second, the main reason he broke up with the varsity cheerleader was because of his overwhelming feelings for his best friend, Gwen Stacy. She was in love with him as much as he was in love with her. That is why they both planned to split from their current partners to eventually be together. Awe! Isn’t geek love cute?  
However, that backfired SEVERELY!  
Let’s break this highschool drama down.  
Peter jumped the gun on splitting from Liz, Gwen was supposed to do the same with Harry. However, after his father’s passing, Harry needed support and guilted Gwen, and told her she’s the only individual that helped him stay away from his previous addiction, Oscorp’s experimental performance enhancer: Globulin Green, and he needs her.  
Let’s just say Gwen didn’t split with Harry while Peter ended up with Casper… which is the equivalent of being alone.  
Third, Harry distanced himself from Peter, losing trust in his ‘best’ friend, after previously he overheard Gwen & Peter’s plans. He also knew that Peter continued to take pictures of Spider-Man, even though Harry saw the vigilante responsible for his father’s death.  
After all of that, Pete hit the rock bottom of the food chain at school. Sure, he had the beautiful Mary Jane Watson as his friend, but she hung around Glory and ‘the in-crowd’ more often. Without his cheerleader girlfriend, and his two best friends, it makes sense to feel alone. He felt more alone than ever.  
Let’s just say this High School drama isn’t like the drama in the high school musical trilogy but it’s really entertaining.

Usually, the summertime was an exhilarating time for high school students like Peter. No school, no homework (unless you signed up for AP, then you played yourself), which meant no test to study for, which meant there was nothing to stress about.  
In previous summer vacations, he would usually hang around Harry’s penthouse, spend time at the beach with Gwen or go to Coney Island. Then as Spider-Man, he would triumphantly patrol the streets of New York City. Fun times…  
But as of this summer, it was uneventful. it wasn't the same. The people he’d usually hang out with had other plans. Mary Jane went to Florida with her aunt, and Harry took Gwen to Europe for most of the summer (which is so fancy). HeHe spent his time bored, either busy with his chores or upstairs in his room. There was a likely possibility that Liz would never want to speak to him again, which was understandable.  
Ever since Spider-Man has been labeled public enemy number one, he didn’t patrol as often, due to the real chance he’ll be either arrested or shot or shot. Plus, crime has been mysteriously silent during the summer, so there’s no reason to.  
So there was Peter, on the last day of summer vacation isolated up in his room. He listened to the police radio and waited. He waited for some action to go down. He needed something to end his vacation on. But there was nothing. No reports of a robbery, mugging, or murder. So, He waited for anything. Any report of a robbery, or any report of a mugging. HELL, you could smell his sense of desperation if he asked for any report of a cat stuck in a tree. But unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing. Life can't get any worse, can it?  
However, Peter’s steady optimism remained. He knew the recent months haven’t been as spectacular as he hoped, but he knew that life will get better soon… hopefully. In the meantime, he sat on his twin mattress, alone with the police radio in the background.  
He was alone.

Back to our regularly scheduled program… (cue the epic soundtrack) 

🕷

Living on the edge  
Fighting crime, spinning webs  
Swinging from the highest ledge  
He can leap above our heads

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah  
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

Villians on the rise  
And the city's victimized  
Looking up with no surprise  
Arriving in the speed of time

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah  
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-Man  
Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-Man  
Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-Man  
Spectacular

Crawling through the night  
Facing evil in his might  
He's a hero in our eyes  
See the headlights every time

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah  
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

Making villains fall  
Webbing rivals to a halt  
Racing up and down the walls  
Bringing justice to us all

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah  
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-Man  
Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-Man  
Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-Man  
Spectacular

Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-Man  
Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-Man

🕷

Author’s Message: If you haven’t listened to the spectacular spider-man theme song, you’re missing out.  



	2. Credibility (Chapter 1)

Credibility (Chapter 1)

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Spectacular Characters or Marvel Characters.

A Dark Void

Usually, during a school night, some high school students either work on homework, a project, or go out with their friends. On the other hand, other highschool students, like Peter Parker and Harry Osborn, have to deal with something far more frightening.  
“You FRAMED YOUR OWN SON!” Spider-Man exclaimed in shock.   
“I protected HARRY! If I were sent to prison, who would’ve made a man out of him… Just look at what he’s done today… I’ve never been prouder of the boy,” Norman proclaimed about his son.  
“Who are you kidding, you were saving your own sorry butt, NOT HARRY’S!”  
“Potato Patato, once you’re out of the picture, I’ll make everything right…”  
“You would know right if you blew up your glider!” The Web-Head shoved the bomb on the rear engine of the glider.  
‘Beep Beep Beep AHAHAHA’ Norman’s glider blew. The blast sent him into the deep pool of his own goblin bombs. ‘BAM BAM BAM AHAHAHAAAHAHAHA!’ Those explosives erupted with laughter with Norman Osborn in the vicinity. His son helplessly watched in horror from the helicopter.  
“DAD!” the boy’s voice strangled. Peter looked up, horrified at his act towards the green Goblin. He realized what he had done. ‘Oh God, what have I done...’  
…  
The next few days, the Daily Bugle would proclaim in their newspapers, “SPIDER-MENACE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF NORMAN OSBORN!”  
During the eulogy of Norman Osborn’s funeral, Harry weakly proclaimed,  
“Nobody understands how that substance can affect you. All my father needed was help… but Spider-man didn’t help him, he’s no better than the freaks he’s put away!”   
Then the world around Peter went dark. Shattered like glass, everywhere he turned.   
Suddenly, Peter woke up restrained by his own thick spider-webbing. He repeatedly tried to escape out of the thick webbing. His brown eyes darted in every single direction, but there was nothing but darkness. There was nothing he could do. Every move to escape from the thickening web was faltered. The web responded back and suffocated his whole body. It restricted him from doing what he desired. But Peter grew tired. He gave New York his all, every single part of himself, to his beloved city. But there was something in that empty dark void. It was a tiny glimmer of light that was seen. It wasn’t even a hallucination. However, the dark embodied someone. “You should’ve seen this coming, Pete!” A voice called out to him from the night. Harry came out of the dark.   
“Harry!”   
“I thought you were different from the rest, Pete. People thought you were different from the rest. You were their savior. Now, Pete, people are going to see who you really are… Spider-Man.” Just then, Harry launched a goblin pumpkin bomb. It landed near Peter’s feet. His eyes grew up in horror.   
“HARRY, YOU GOTTA STOP THIS!”   
“Greet my father for me… in hell.”  
The Bomb sounded, ‘BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!’ 

Reputation  
Six Weeks into the School Year - Parker’s Residence

“HARRY NO!” Peter launched himself out of a twin size mattress and landed on the rough carpet. He woke up in a spiral, with sweat all over his shirt. But it was just a nightmare. ‘It’s only a bad dream, only a bad dream, Pete.’   
His aunt knocked on his door, “Dear, are you awake? You’re going to be late for school.”  
“Ye-Yeah, I’m awake, Aunt May.”  
He rose up with a sharp pain from his lower abdomen. The seventeen years old senior rose from the bed with a sore back, ‘Ow Ow Ow, seriously need to get some padding.’

7:15- 10 minutes before School Starts

A drowsy Peter sluggishly raced down the stairs. He overslept again. The past 4 out of 5 days, until today, which makes it 5 out of 5 days. He’s lucky that he wasn’t late those days.   
“What’s gotten into you, Peter... you’ve woken up late every day this week!”   
“Sorry Aunt May, I-”   
“Now, don’t explain, that’ll waste time… just eat your meal.”   
Peter agreed and dug into his crispy waffles and blueberry pancakes. Aunt May left Peter’s side to finish breakfast and sat on her lounge chair to binge on the latest morning news. Peter couldn’t stop himself tuned in to the morning news.  
“Breaking News this morning, from Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. The convicted serial killer, Cletus Kasady, who escaped from the Ravencroft Institute, has been caught and arrested today. Although there haven’t been official police witnesses to state this, there have been several eyewitnesses that have caught another sighting of the mysterious man in black. Some of the witnesses have dubbed this individual, ‘The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.’ They claim that he’s the man who took down Cletus Kasady and several other convicts these past few weeks. Which leaves most of this community wondering, could we have our sights on a new crimefighter in New York?” 

“Peter, assure me that you won’t go into that neighborhood, no matter what the Bugle tells you, don’t go… Hell’s Kitchen is a grim area, especially with those mysterious men like that running around-”   
“Aunt May, I promise… I won’t. I don’t want to worry you.” ‘However, Spider-Man can take a peek at this new guy.’  
“Thank you, Dear, now hurry!”

“In other unfortunate news this morning, there have been waves of robberies these past several weeks. There was another robbery at Manhattan Jewelry last night. Some officials believe the perpetrator was the cat-burglar alias The Black Cat. However, we have footage of a new individual captured from security cameras, last night at the Midtown Bank. The individual wore a mask that fully covers their face and a hoodie. It appears that this new individual has something mechanical around his forearm. We are issuing a warning to PLEASE don’t approach these dangerous individuals.”   
‘That’s weird, Cat isn’t usually the type of kitty to rob a bank, sure a jewelry store, but not a bank. Plus, I didn’t see her when I patrolled. And the other guy kept me up all night, and I barely got a glimpse of the dude.’

“C’mon sweetie, you can’t be daydreaming at this time, you must hurry! It’s 7:20!”  
“On my way out. Love you!”  
“Ahem…”  
“What?” Peter stood there, confused.  
“Honey, you’re not going with your awful smelling breath, Peter” Aunt May searched through her purse and handed Peter a pack of white breath mints.   
As soon as Peter got out the door, he swung into Manhattan like a cold summer breeze as he glided above towers. If he took the bus, he would’ve been late once he got to the bus stop. Luckily, web-slinging took half the time and avoided all the awkward stares. Well, he still gets some awkward stares at times.   
Suddenly, a roaring sound came from a dark alley.   
“HELP, SOMEBODY HELP!” Instantly without a second thought, Spider-Man headed over. In between the time, two masked men have cornered and beaten a young Hispanic man. The two masked men chattered. “He screwed up!”   
“I know the kid messed up, now we gotta take him out!”   
“We have to call him, we have to call Mr. F-”   
“We don’t SAY HIS NAME,” The masked men threatened.   
The young Hispanic man nervously apologized, “G-guys, I’m so sorry… please not like this. I’ve got a girlfriend and a newborn, I have a FAMILY!” He had butterflies in his stomach, scared of masked men’s aggressiveness.   
“You should’ve thought of that before you screwed up this job! If the man in charge found out about this, we all won’t have our families.”   
“I’m sorry, kid, but we have to do this-” One masked man pointed the gun right at the young man’s temple, ready to blow his brains out. Until a familiar, long spider’s web flung the weapon away.   
“Well, you don’t have to do this at all. Seriously, let’s make this quick, I’m gonna be late to school,” Spider-Man confidently proposed.   
“SPIDER-MAN! I thought the feds arrested you-” The web-slinger instantly webbed the one masked man’s mouth shut. He webbed them up and strung them up in a giant spider web.  
“What can I say, I’m one of those Spiders that don’t stay webbed down for a long time.” He poked fun at the webbed up suspects.   
“Spidey, without you… I wouldn’t see the adorable face of my newborn. I knew all those headlines about you weren’t true, so thank y-”   
“Don’t mention it…” It couldn’t be seen, because of the mask, but Peter had the biggest smile on his face. He saved another person, and this time, he appreciated it. His smile would last until Peter heard the school bell roar in the distance. He immediately checked his phone, 7:25.   
“Shoot. I got 5 minutes!” 

Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School

There were two bells in the morning in high school. The 7:25 bell usually told students to head to class, it was the so-called, ‘relax… you’re not gonna be late’ bell. That bell was nothing to worry about. But the 7:30 bell is the late bell. The so-called ‘hurry up or you’re dead,’ bell. The late bell was the death sentence. Once that bell rang, and you weren’t in class, you were screwed. Since the number of tardy kids rose, The Principal of Midtown Magnet made it official that security would tighten up, and sweep up the unfortunate few that don’t run to class on time.   
After Peter changed out of his Spidey-suit, he rushed through the double doors of the roof. He quickly headed down the flight of stairs to his 1st period English Class. But security was currently through the hallways. And they grabbed a few students before they could rush into their classes and brought them into Principal Davis’ office. One of those unfortunate few today was Peter Parker. The senior slowly slouched over to the principal’s office, with an unenthusiastic look on his face. The Principal sat in front of him and scanned through his emails.  
“Well, I assume there was a lot of traffic on the way, Mr. Parker, because it’s not like you to be late, son.”   
“Yeah, you can say that.” ‘I assume saving a guy from two muggers is considered traffic’   
“I know this is your first time being late because it’s not like you to be wandering the halls after the late bell has rung.”  
“Sorry Mr. Davis, I’ve been busy-”  
“Mr. Parker, you seem like a good kid, but suddenly your grades have plummeted compared to your junior year. It’s unlike you.”  
“Yeah, I know…”  
“Then You should know I have to call your aunt about this.” Peter reluctantly nodded and avoided eye contact with his principal. His eyes peeked down to his shoes with one thought on his mind, ‘Aunt May’s gonna kill me.’

Once the 1st-period dismissal bell roared, Principal Davis let all of the tardy kids out of office, including Peter. During passing period, he headed to the boy’s restroom, until he ran into his familiar blonde friend in the hallway.   
“H-hey Gwen,” He awkwardly greeted. The blonde physically changed a lot from junior year. She dropped the glasses, the salmon-colored polo & red vest and gained contacts, a salmon-colored overcoat & a sleek black-top. Contacts emphasized her gorgeous bright blue eyes, and the elegant black top highlighted her curvature. Right at the moment, King Geek was lost in the beauty of Ms. Stacy’s eyes.   
“Peter, do you know what you missed for English?” Gwen snapped him out of his daze.  
“Uh Gwen, we’ll talk about it later at the lab.”   
“umm, you didn’t check your email, did you?”   
“No why?”   
“Dr. Warren emailed all of the interns that the lab will be closed until further notice.”   
“T-thanks for letting me know Gwen, now gotta head to class”   
“Ahem…” She gave him ‘the look.’ A look that can guilt the strongest of souls, especially the soul of a geek.   
“Oh yeah, what did I miss for AP English?”   
“Well, we still have to work on that literature research project, Pete… the one you haven’t contributed to...”   
“Sorry Gwen, I try doing as much of the project at home”  
“You should meet with Mary Jane as well, remember she’s part of our group.”  
“Yeah, promise.” ‘Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Pete.’  
Out of nowhere, Harry appeared from behind her and embraced Gwen. “Hey Babe,” he pecked her on the cheek.   
“Um, Bye, Har, bye, Gwen.” Pete quickly babbled. He felt awkward around the pair, first because he doesn’t like public displays of affection. Second, Harry was with his dream girl, the girl he wanted to be with since last year. But that didn’t happen.   
“What’s up with Pete?”   
“I-I don’t know…” Gwen gazed at Peter, concerned for her friend. “Hey Harry, didn’t you just come out of the restroom…” She added.  
“Yeah and-”   
“Did you wash your hands?”   
“W-well, there were a lot of people in the way of the faucets and…”   
“So you didn’t, huh… you hugged me with dirty hands, gross”   
“What do you want me to do-”   
“Go back in the restroom and wash your hands”   
“Ugh, fine!”  
Fortunately, Peter arrived at his class on time. Unfortunately, his tardy slip was still in hand.   
“Late to school, Mr. Parker?” Mrs. Nelson harshly mentioned.   
“Yeah,” Peter whispers under his breath. He lowered his head to avoid the awkward glares from his classmates as he quietly sneaked to his desk.   
“Anyways, good morning class, since I’m in such a dazzling mood, I’m announcing a new class project. The main objective of this project is to interview a Lawyer about the importance of the law. You will have to create a video and present it to the class. It’s like a news interview. This project will be important, so it would make sense for this to be 100 points.” The Class groans and complains.   
“Since I am in such a great mood, I’ll make this assignment easier, as you will be assigned a group…”   
“So we don’t get to pick our group?”  
“That’s why it’s called an assigned group.”   
Immediately all the criticisms and displeasures about assigned groups were heard. “Okay, I’ll make it fair, blindly pick two names from the hat,” She added.   
“Not this again, last year we did this, I got Norman Osborn’s spawn,” Flash Thompson proclaimed.  
Peter was next up to pick. ‘please not Sally, please, wait, she isn’t in this class… I’m good then’ The hat was passed down to him, and he shook the hat. It was like a raffle. He closed his eyes and buried his hand into what seemed like a dark void of name slips. Peter peaked down at the name he had picked and announced the name, “Hobie Brown?” He scanned around the whole classroom, but there was no sign of Hobie. Peter’s eyes darted to his assigned seat, but he was nowhere to be found.   
“Excuse me, Mrs. Nelson, Hobie isn’t here.” The teacher scanned the classroom in search of Hobie Brown.   
“You’re right, Mr. Parker. But whenever he comes back, he’ll be in your group of three, here, pick another partner,” she confirmed. His hand reached into the pile of names again, mixing through the potential partners. His hand pulled out the slip of paper in the hope of another absentee. Peter wanted to work on this alone because he didn’t want to let others down. But this time, he wasn’t so lucky, ‘Oh god, this just got terribly worse.’ Peter took a big gulp before he nervously announced, “Um… L-Liz, Allan.” Instantly, her amber eyes gleamed up once she heard Peter call out her name. From across the classroom, Liz’s ear-piercing shriek was heard.   
“WAIT, PETEY! Oh no, no, I don’t think so. Mrs. Nelson… this must be some mistake!”   
“Not a mistake at all, Ms. Allan, the hat has spoken, you three are a group!” Their teacher exclaimed.  
Peter and Liz’s eyes quickly glanced at each other and miserably mumbled in unison, “Great…” 

Later that day, Spider-Man quietly ‘thwiped’ through the tall towers of Manhattan. Being a wanted man, he made sure that he avoided law enforcement at all times.  
‘Such Parker luck, huh. Isn’t it great that I grouped up my ex-girlfriend for this lawyer interview project? Who am I kidding, Liz is gonna kill me. That’s not an if either. We haven’t even spoken since the break-up, heck she pretended like I didn’t exist till today. But, it’s my fault, she needed my help, my support and I left-’   
His thoughts were interrupted by a deafening clang. It was the Midtown bank alarm. “Another robbery gotta admit... that’s one way to forget about my problems,” The web-slinger told himself and web-slinged to the crime scene.

Hell’s Kitchen

In the meantime, a dark, mysterious figure rushed out of the Midtown bank and carried a whole duffle-bag worth of cash on its shoulders. The individual headed into a grim alleyway of the dangerous neighborhood, Hell’s Kitchen. He quickly sought for the nearest iron ladder. He eventually found the glorious ‘slide-down’ ladders and headed up the building.   
As soon as the foot landed on the fifth step, he felt a slight tug on his ankle. Then he felt as if someone tightly wrapped their hand around his ankle. Suddenly, his whole body abruptly trembled to the filthy ground. His face met the smelly cement with no cushion. He tried to get back up but felt the presence of something above him. It was like the presence was breathed down on him for his crime.   
All that was visible were dark combat boots that stood in front of him. His eyes darted to the sky to see a masked man tower over him. He wore a mask that covered everything on his face except for his mouth. His eyes observed the simple black long sleeve and trousers. But his forearms to his knuckles were wrapped with a stained white cloth. He was the man in black.  
“I don’t know what you’re doing, but it ends now,” The Man in Black proclaimed. He gripped the robber’s arm, to keep the individual from fleeing. But the individual resisted, “I’m sorry, but it’s not going to end this way.” Immediately his armored gauntlets activated, and his attack began, with a slash to the Man in Black’s chest. He lost grip of the man’s arm and defended from the gauntlet’s quick attacks. The hooded man unleashed a variety of quick hand to hand attacks, but the Man in Black fought well and unleashed a few of his own. He maintained his ground and landed punches to the chest. But with sturdy metal gauntlets, the punches by the hooded-man caused plenty more damage. Especially a blow to the mouth brought the Man in Black to the ground.   
Spider-Man finally arrived at the scene and followed the hooded suspect. The hooded individual looked like he flew past the ladders and arrived at the roof. But the Webhead was at his tail. “Hey, I really can’t chase after you all night, I tried doing that yesterday but I got a curfew, so if you can hand the money over and turn yourself in, we can call it a night,” he humorously proposed.   
The mysterious man turned around and faced the web-slinger, from a distance. His dark appearance blended into the dark sky. Spidey intently focused on this suspect’s appearance. Their eyes glowed through the darkness. His dark lavender mask maintained the illusion of stealth, with the rest of his dark outfit. But his durable gauntlets shined in the night. ‘It’s the Prowler.’   
“I’d hate to get those fancy gloves dirty.”   
“And you won’t need to,” The man proclaimed. He immediately released smoke pellets near Spider-Man, which created thick smoke. He scanned around the whole rooftop, but he was nowhere to be seen. He was gone.  
All of a sudden, a man appeared behind Spider-Man, “He got away, huh...”   
“Yeah. That kid was fast and got away with the money.” He turned around to see The Man in Black. “I gotta admit, you lasted pretty well, for a guy with black pajamas,” Spider-Man added.   
“Says the kid who swings at night in tight spandex.”   
“Not bad new guy, do you have a name?”  
“Like a superhero name- no, no-no.”  
“Yeah, if you need ideas, the Bugle and Morning News have dubbed you ‘The Mysterious Man in Black’ or ‘The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.’ That one is my personal favorite.”  
“I’m no superhero, I’m just a guy… who can’t turn a blind eye to injustice in this neighborhood.”  
“I respect that.”   
“Look we should team up and find this guy-”  
“Wait, team up? The last time I teamed up with someone, it backfired severely. I need to do this thing on my own.”   
“We, as a duo, could do some real good in this city.”   
“No, this city was in real good shape once the Green Goblin was gone-”   
“Was in good shape, past tense. But look at the present tense, this city isn’t in peace… there’s something brewing in the criminal underworld, waiting to erupt in this city”   
“What are you talking about? All the crime bosses in this city, Green Goblin, Silvermane, The Master Planner, and Tombstone, are gone. I took them down, and there are no other crimelords.”   
“You think Mr. Lincoln had the biggest criminal empire in New York? There’s someone bigger-”  
“Who? l-look Mr. Devil, you seem like a good guy who wants to do the right thing, but I can’t have you become wanted because of me… they’ve turned on me, but this city is my responsibility.”  
“We live in this city, it’s our responsibility-”   
“Listen, I’m not a big fan of teaming up, not anymore at least... sorry.”   
He observed the cuts on his lip and chest, “you should really get yourself checked out, and figure out a name.” Spider-Man swung back home so he wouldn’t be late for his curfew, or Aunt May would really pester him, after the day he had.   
‘There’s someone bigger, I know it,’ The Man in Black assured himself.

Somewhere in New York

Moments passed as the mysterious individual hustled into a dark neighborhood alley with the stolen money at hand. He breathed heavily, after having escaped two vigilantes with just a scratch. He peeked over to check if there were any witnesses. Luckily for him, there was none. Only then, the bright headlights appear out of the neighborhood’s darkness as a mysterious matte vehicle pulled up in front of him. The windows rolled down to see a clean-cut individual call out to him, “Prowler, get in the car.” He did what was told and entered the doors of the large vehicle. “Sir, the money has been extracted successfully,” The clean-cut man assured.   
“Excellent, any witnesses?” The voice questioned through the phone. Immediately, the man pulled the phone away from his ear and placed the call on speakerphone. “Kid, were there any witnesses?” He sharply questioned.   
The child gulped, “I’m sorry Mr.-”   
“We don’t say his name, kid,” The man in the suit sharply interrupted.  
“It’s alright, continue,” the voice urged.  
The kid admitted, “T-There were two, the new guy, the man in black and Spider-Man.”  
“This is rather unfortunate… no matter, this is another obstacle, and I have something to handle this obstacle.”  
The Prowler asked, “What is it?”  
“Be patient, you’ll see. Wesley, bring him home, we have plenty ahead of us. First thing on the agenda, call Mr. Gargan about our appointment in the morning. Then, these vigilantes of New York will be handled, starting with Spider-Man,” the mysterious voice proclaimed.

To Be Continued… 

Message from the Author, TheTypingAvocado:   
I know times are tough currently, but I hope this story brings your hopes up.  
Feel free to leave constructive criticism on this chapter and future chapters, it helps. :)


	3. Law of Effect (Chapter 2)

Law Of Effect (Chapter 2)

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Spectacular Characters or Marvel Characters.  
Also, there are themes of abuse. Consequently, READERS’ DISCRETION ADVISED

Mental Health

When your ‘childhood’ is brought up, what do you remember? Hmm… when I remember my childhood, I remember all the Batman and Spider-man toys and all the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies. The remembrance of your childhood usually brings joy and nostalgia back to your miserable souls. Back when you didn’t have any responsibilities. ZERO, ZILCH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Wasn’t it so Beautiful? Knowing all you had to do on Saturday mornings was to get up, eat cereal and watch cartoons or anime (whatever you’re into).  
Usually, your childhood’s remembrance would bring tears of happiness, realizing back then was WAY more comfortable than where you are now. Usually… 

Now take this large man, the kids at school called him, ‘Willy.’ Back then, he was a huge sixteen-year-old boy. His height was 5’10 while his weight clocked in at 200. He went to Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School but wasn’t all fun. One word to describe it… MISERABLE. The obnoxious students harassed and embarrassed the boy when they got the chance. They called him a fatass, fatty, blobby, lard ass, and any other insult associated with being obese. Let’s go on record and say, high school kids, are the worst—insensitive bastards.   
Occasionally, he came home with a busted lip, several dark bruises on his light complexion, spread across his body, and one whole shattered soul.   
However, his home life was better for the sixteen-year-old boy… mostly because of his mother. She made his life tolerable. She baked the most delicious cookies in the neighborhood as the kids smelled the wafting deliciousness from down below. Even when Willy didn’t have the best day, his mother embraced him while he cried, listened to his problems, and gave him pastries to take his mind off those kids who bullied him. She wanted her son to be happy because she loved and accepted him. She was a wonderful mother to him, and he’d like her for it.  
But Willy’s father, on the other hand, wanted more from him. He wanted his son to live like a King, to get what he wanted, and to be a powerful man. But all he saw in Willy was nothing else but a disappointment. He saw his son as this obese, lazy, and weak child, who didn’t get what he wanted, because he never chased after it. He’s so frustrated at his boy, and all of his frustration built up… occasionally, it led to screaming and intimidation… sometimes, hitting and punching… which led to blood on the carpet. Obviously, Willy’s memories of his father weren’t so bright.  
Most days, he came to school as if he was a puppy that got run over by his dad’s car. Most of the time, he quickly changed in the locker room, so no one questioned several bruises on his back. Still, some students caught a glimpse of his dark purple bruises, and it brought chills down their spine. Some tried to talk to him about it, but he refused to open up. He didn’t want people to speak to him about it, because he knew nothing would change. He hid from himself. He disappeared from how he felt and failed to express it.   
As a result, he decided to suppress his pain. He contained all of it.   
However, one typical Friday night, everything would change. Willy’s father had a rough week at work; consequently, he lounged on the filthy chair and drank the rest of his terrible week away from his memory...   
But his wife didn’t approve of his heavy drinking and called him out on it. She usually tolerated his heavy drunkenness, but she needed help with the house chores. Plus, she hated to see a bum on the couch. His wife aggravated him because he didn’t like to be told about his mistakes. Also, the alcohol reached to his head. The anger he felt needed to be released. So, he released his anger out on her. His bride. She backed herself into a corner, afraid of him. Her eyes gazed into his intense amber eyes. She saw the fierce fury in his eyes and immediately knew the man that her husband was no longer there.  
He hit her repeatedly with his worn-out leather belt. Their son heard all of it. Willy cried in his bed and tried to muffle the sound of his mother’s cries of pain. Her cries grew… louder …. louder… and louder… to the beat of his heart. At that moment, His emotions could not be suppressed. He grabbed his old belt and arrived in the living room. His eyes darted at the woman who birthed him, being beaten. There were cuts on her arm, and blood dripped from her mouth. Their carpet was stained with her blood as his father stood over her, with the belt held up high, with intent to cause more harm.   
At that very moment, Willy saw the monster who abused him his whole life, be unleashed before his eyes. He knew exactly his next move and whipped the belt at him. The end of the leather belt struck him, which left the father stunned. He could tell the ‘Willy’ he once knew was no longer there. Immediately, Willy hit the man … harder… and harder… and harder. He unleashed all of it. The abuse… his cries… her cries… ALL OF IT WAS UNLEASHED. The blood-spattered all over the dirty grey carpet as the man dropped to the mat. Willy then wrapped the leather belt around the man’s neck and held it tighter… and tighter… and tighter… until he didn’t hear a single breath come out of his father’s mouth… again. His body, dead on their carpet. The days that followed after the incident, his mother would send him to his grandparents’ home. As for herself, she got rid of her husband’s corpse and ran away from the city.   
Usually, the remembrance of your childhood would bring tears of happiness, realizing back then was WAY easier than where you are now. But some people don’t react the same way to certain things, especially to their childhood. Whenever Willy was reminded of his childhood… he teared up. But those weren’t tears of happiness or nostalgia. Those were tears from the years of constant bruises on his back.   
But life moves on, and people move on. Life changes for better or worse. Yet, there was Willy, all grown up literally. He became a 6’7 280-pound juggernaut. Things definitely changed. He also became a successful businessman and made plenty of money, 2.4 billion dollars, for his multiple businesses. He lived a prosperous life, in a beautiful penthouse. But he still laid awake at night and struggled to rest. Every time, Willy laid awake, he gazed at the same picture of that same woman. He observed her beautiful honey eyes, her luscious hair, and gorgeous face. His mind wondered every day if he could have someone as wonderful as her. The one person that makes him whole. And he did, once. Vanessa Marianna. Willy immediately knew she was the love of his life. He immediately married her. They had their whole lives planned out. She was even pregnant with his child. It felt wonderful. Finally, there was someone who loved him, instead of his mother. Sometimes, he questioned if he even deserved her. Someone loving, accepting, and understanding of him. Fate said that He didn’t deserve her.   
Unfortunately, there was this multiple car crash. Consequently, there were 7 deaths, which included Vanessa and the unborn child. They didn’t survive, yet Willy did. He held her injured body and witnessed her final few breaths. It tore him apart. Every time he gazed at her picture, he was reminded of the family that he never had. Even though his past was behind him, the memories still haunted him. However, he couldn’t keep dwelling in the past, he had to power himself to rise from his luxurious bed once the sunrise was visible from his penthouse windows. He knew the busy day he had ahead of him. So he dressed in a white silk suit for the occasion.   
Especially in the present, his penthouse doors flew open to start off his morning. His representative entered to discuss the plan for the day. He appeared as a clean-cut individual, with his shiny black hair cleanly combed and parted to the left and matte black square frames. He considered him, his one and only confidant and called him, Wesley.   
“Sir, you need to get downstairs, the van waiting for you.” He agreed and Wesley led him downstairs.   
Once they arrived in the parking garage, the man in the white suit mentioned discreetly, “Wesley, did you reach out to the potential client?”   
“Yes sir, he’s waiting in the car.” He answered. Once the car doors were opened, it unveiled their potential client. He appeared to be around 40 years old and wore a raggedy faded suit and baggy trousers.   
“You must be the famous Mr...” The man greeted him with a firm handshake. The rush of anxiety was felt through his sweaty palms. His composure said everything about himself. From the sweaty palms to his tense posture, it was obvious that he was nervous. But he understood the man’s nervous behavior because he was going to ask for something important from him.  
“Fisk. Wilson Fisk. I assume you’re Mr. MacDonald Gargan.”  
“Yes sir. How are you guys planning to help me?”   
“In any way we can, Mr. Gargan, but you must do one favor for me.”   
“Sir, I’ll do anything you ask…” He blurted out.   
Immediately, Wilson sensed his desperation from the tone of his voice. ‘Anything?’  
“Excellent,” Fisk smiled to himself. Then his attention shifted to the driver, “Ahem, drive to the ESU Laboratory.”  
“Yes sir,” the driver answered. 

Social Psychology- Midtown Magnet High School

Another week in Peter Parker’s life, another week for miserable luck. The ‘King Geek’ was exhausted by his late-night chores. However, unlike other students, his late-night chores were patrolling Manhattan in tight red & blue spandex, in search of the mysterious Prowler. However, there was no sight of the suspect, which made his Sunday night patrol an absolute waste of his time. Time was important in the boy’s life, especially for his late-night curfew. If he was ever a second late passed his curfew, his aunt would never hear the end of it. Although he tried his best to arrive on time. Especially during school days, ‘his best’ would help him arrive on time.  
Unfortunately not this time, because he was late again. School security caught him sneaking through the halls… again. The only reason he arrived late was because of a cat. He had to rescue the feline that was stuck in a tree just to have it be handed to an ungrateful owner. All that for a cat, what a waste. Anyways, he was sent to a classroom filled with other tardy kids. An unlucky teacher had to waste his prep period to watch these tardy students. And Peter was one of them. He slouched over to an empty back seat and put his head down on the desk. He thought of nothing else, except for one thing, ‘Aunt May is gonna kill me!’  
After the 1st Period bell roared, he immediately hopped off his seat, grabbed his back, and exited through the door. When he entered the crowded hallway, he was lost in the heavy amounts of people. It was filled with students who headed in one direction, while others went in another. In such a busy hallway, one student was bound to fall and drop all their books and papers. It’s a high school cliche’ after all. And that did happen to one freshman. He dropped all his belongings as others passed by, not with a single attempt to help him. The older students didn’t care. Why would they? He's a freshman.  
Until Peter Parker called out to him, “Hey man, you need help with that?” The freshman slowly nodded and they took the time and plucked each of the papers off the ground.  
“Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.”   
“No problem, looked like you needed the help… you’re new here?”   
“Well, it’s my freshman year?”   
“It’s my senior year,” He handed him the last few papers.  
“That’s cool… gotta name?”   
“Peter Parker, yours?”   
“Miles… Miles Morales.”   
“Well, I gotta head to class, see you around Miles,” They turned their separate ways and headed to their classes.  
Peter immediately rushed over to AP Government to avoid another tardy added to his attendance. He dashed through crowds of people and he arrived at class on time but drenched in sweat.   
“Parker, what happened to you, looks like you just ran the mile,” Flash Thompson commented. “And you sure smell like it,” he added.   
As soon as the students arrived at their seats, their teacher rose from her desk.   
“Good morning class, we only have one thing on our agenda today, that is our project. So meet up with your assigned partners immediately,” Mrs. Nelson loudly announced. Immediately those students who were paired up with their friends cheerfully hopped from their desks and rushed to their friends. And the unfortunate few slowly moped over to their groups. That was essentially Peter and Liz Allan. He quietly sat at the desk behind her.   
“Hey Liz,” he quietly greeted. All she gave him was a tiny smirk on her face and a soundless, “Hi.”  
Immediately Hobie Brown appeared in front of them, “Mrs. Nelson told me I’m part of your group.”  
“Yeah, you are.”  
Just then, the group sat there in awkward silence… for approximately 4 minutes.  
However, Hobie broke the silence, “So… what do we do now?”   
“I don’t know. Any ideas?” Peter questioned.  
“Well, we could meet up somewhere after school?” Liz offered.  
“Meet up at that new place by Clinton Ave,” Hobie brought up.  
“What place?” The other two questioned.  
“It’s called Nelson’s Meats or something like that.”

As soon as lunchtime arrived, students rushed out of their classrooms and dashed to the cafeteria. Usually, around lunchtime, Peter would sit at a lunch table alone, because nobody wants to be in the same company as the King Geek. Until a familiar voice called out to him. “Peter!” He remained confused, as he searched through the crowd of people until he saw the person wave him over.   
“Hey, Harry.”   
“Pete, we haven’t hung out for a while, I missed you.”   
“Sorry man, I’ve just been busy, you know”   
“Yeah, I can tell, do you get any sleep… still taking pictures of the Webhead?”   
“Yeah Harry, still do… it helps pay the bills.”   
“But wouldn’t you think the feds or the police arrested him? He's … wanted throughout the city.”   
“Well, they haven’t yet.”   
“Pete, be honest... if you knew who the man under the mask was… would you tell me?” Harry asked. “Like… don’t you know how I feel, I want this guy gone, off the face of the earth, like wouldn’t you… want that for your Uncle’s killer? He took away someone I cared about.” He added.  
All Peter did was sit there, awkwardly silent. His eyes fixed on the rusty old lunch table.  
‘How could I answer that? I’m the one who took your father away from you…?!’   
However, Harry could tell his friend was uncomfortable, through the lack of eye contact and his silence. So he broke the silence, “Pete look, I’m sorry for being a bit confrontational about this… like you’re one of my closest friends, you’re practically my brother… you know that. It’s just my father… thought of you as the son he’d never had. I would figure that you would feel the same way as I do. But, I shouldn’t keep dragging you about this anymore.”   
Peter patted his best friend’s shoulder, “Thanks, Harry. You know I care, and I’ll help you through this.”   
Just then, a pair of women appeared at their lunch table, the stunning Mary Jane Watson and the gorgeous Gwen Stacy. “Pete, where were you during 1st period? It’s unlike you to be late twice in a school year,” the blonde asked.  
“Yeah Tiger, what’s up with you lately? You’re missing a lot in AP English.”   
“I’m fine guys,” Peter reassured.  
“You sure, Tiger? If there’s anything we can do… to help”  
“I’m fine MJ… seriously, I just overslept these past few days…”  
“Well did you at least add anything to the presentation?” Gwen cross-examined.  
“What presenta- Oh CRAP. I forgot!”  
“Peter… you serious, that thing’s due this week!” she emphasized.  
“Yeah, I know. But I promise I won’t forget to work on the English presentation.”  
“Tiger, we can work on it at my Aunt’s house,” the redhead offered.  
“Really?”  
“Mhmm,” she reassured.  
“That sounds good MJ, I’ll just let you know when my schedule is open.”

E.S.U Laboratory 

The matte black van arrived at Empire State University. "We have arrived, sir."   
“Mr. Fisk, what are we doing here at the ESU college campus?” Mac questioned.  
“We are here for your appointment,” Wesley sharply mentioned.  
“What appointment?”   
“To prep you for your job that Mr. Fisk has provided for you,” Wesley answered.  
“I’m gonna work at a lab?”   
“No… you will be the product of the lab Mr. Gargan. Allow me to explain your situation here. Your recent employment was with the late Mr. Osborn. It’s unfortunate what happened to him. But with his passing, you’re out of a job. Which led to the lack of money to support your ill daughter. Now, why did this all happen? This happened because of vigilantes, one, in particular, Spider-man. Men like him believe they are cleaning this beloved city, but in reality, they are tearing it apart. Spider-Man has shown his true colors, which makes him a threat to New York. And these threats need to be taken out,” Wilson explained.  
“Why are you telling me this, Mr. Fisk? You want to find a hitman?”   
“I’m telling you that you can be the hero this city needs. You’ll be protecting this community you’ve called your home for years. I will even provide economic support, the support you needed for your ill daughter. All you need to do is take out those masked men and you’ll get your pay,” He urged.  
“That sounds all nice but I can’t do that, even if I wanted to. I can’t take on those guys, I’m not capable of it,” Gargan admitted.  
“True, you can not take on those guys, yet. But with the right equipment, you can. Everything will be provided for you. All you gotta do is take out these men and you’ll get your payment. Promise, I’m a man of my word.”   
“Fine… just these two guys, then I’m done,” he agreed.  
“That is excellent to hear. Now Wesley will escort you to your next destination Mr. Gargan, good luck.”  
“What are you going to do?”  
“I have a speech to attend to. Wesley, make sure Dr. Warren receives his payment.”  
“It’ll all be done, sir.”  
“I count on it,” Fisk confidently responded.  
Immediately, the two men exited the vehicle, their vehicle drove away. Both men were quickly ushered by security into the Laboratory doors. 

Nelson’s Deli

Once Peter arrived at the designated place, he saw several customers that were inside the building. Although he spotted one familiar customer, Midtown Magnet’s Varsity captain, Liz Allan. She sat at the back table, fiddling with her cell phone. He arrived at her table, awkwardly, “Hey… Liz”   
“Hi…” She solemnly responded.  
“I guess Hobie is a no-show, huh.”   
“Yeah… ” her voice rasped.   
“C-can I sit here?” He stuttered. She responded with a small nod so he slowly pulled out the chair. He sat there silent as he awkwardly played with his thumbs. “So… h-how was cheerleading practice?”   
“... it went fine,” She bluntly answered.  
“that’s good. Are you hungry? I have some money-” Peter offered.  
“I’m on a vegan diet, so no meat for me.”   
“oh, I’m sure this place offers salads… ” he assumed. ‘When did she become vegan?’  
“Petey, I know what you're trying to do, you’re trying to mend things together. But it’ll never happen. The only reason we’re here was that we have to wait for Hobie for this stupid project. We should get this project done and … we are done… we don’t speak again. I know you don’t want to do this project as much as I do… so this is for both our sakes,” Liz sternly expressed. But through her stern mask, he knew that Liz was hurting. From her lack of eye contact, the shaky tone of her voice, and her nonexistent will to look at him. And the little tear that trickled down her face.  
“Fine… but we have to find some lawyers to interview, do you know any?”   
“Excuse me, are you two searching for lawyers?” The owner intruded.   
“Yeah… do you happen to know anyone?”  
“Of course, my own son has a new law firm in Hell’s Kitchen. Go check them out,” he handed each of them a business card.   
“... Nelson And… Murdock? Attorneys At Law,” Liz read.  
“The address is at the back of the card.”  
“Thanks, Mr. Nelson,” Peter thanked.   
“Do you think we should tell Hobie?” she questioned.  
“Well he looks like he’s a no show, we’ll tell him tomorrow we checked this place out.” 

Nelson & Murdock Law Firm

Once the pair arrived at the given address, they entered the building complex. Peter slowly opened the door for Liz as she entered first. Immediately, their eyes focused on two middle-aged individuals, who stood in front of them.   
“Excuse me. Um, are you Franklin Nelson?” Peter asked.   
“Yep, although most people call me Foggy. Allow me to introduce our secretary, Karen Page. What is it that we can help you with, although high school kids don’t need legal help, unless-”   
“Uh no… we don’t need legal help. I’m Peter Parker. This is my partner, Liz Allan. The owner of the Deli on Clinton Ave referred us here”  
“So, my father brought you here?” Foggy asked.  
“Yes Mr. Foggy, he even gave us your card,” Liz handed him the business card.  
Karen pulled him aside, “Foggy, how many business cards did you give to your dad? Because we are running out.”   
“I gave him a few… hundred,” he answered, which Karen’s reaction was a simple facepalm.   
“Foggy, really!”  
“I thought it would help… and look! It did. These kids found us through those cards. ”  
“But he doesn’t need all the ‘few hundred’ business cards you gave him, ask for a few back,” she urged him.  
“Fine…”   
Karen smiled and immediately turned to the two high school kids, “Anyways, how can we help you guys today?”   
“Well Ms. Page, we have this school project, where we have to interview lawyers about the importance of law-”   
Suddenly, the office door opened behind them, which entered a blind man. He wore rose-colored sunglasses and a baggy, grey untailored suit. His brown hair was scruffy like his soft stubble on his chin. His face wasn’t in the best shape either. It had a few cuts that dried up and scabbed. While the area under his cheekbone was bruised. It caught everybody’s attention.   
“Hey Mat- whoa, what’s up with the busted lip?” Foggy observed.  
“What happened to you?” Karen concernedly asked.  
“Guys, guys I’m fine. I just fell down the stairs… again,” he assured his friends.   
“You should really ask for a lower level apartment? It’s a safer option for you,” Karen proposed.   
“Karen, Foggy, I’m fine. Anyway, I feel the presence of two other people in the room. Are these… potential clients?” The blind man questioned.  
“No… um-guys, this is my business partner, Matt Murdock.” Foggy introduced.   
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Murdock,” the students answered.   
“Matt, these highschool kids need us for their project,” their secretary mentioned.   
“What kind of project is it?” Matt asked.  
“It’s an interview, well more like a documentary.”  
“Like a 4-5 minute documentary on the importance of the Law.”  
Immediately, a vibration from Peter’s phone could be felt through his pants pocket. He pulled his phone out with the notification that the Daily Bugle had called him. Then he got a text from Ned Lee. The text read, ‘Peter, someone’s here attacking the bugle!’   
‘You gotta be kidding me!’  
“Sorry guys, I have to go, because this guy is terrorizing my boss and the Bugle. And if I don’t go… they might fire me”  
“You’re serious, Petey?”  
“Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, Peter. We hope we could help you with your project, and that your boss is in good health,” Peter shook Matt’s hand and dashed out the office door. ‘Why does his voice sound familiar?’ Matt questioned himself.  
His partner, Liz crossed her arms and bitterly grumbled, “Petey… does that sometimes…” 

The Daily Bugle 

The Bugle was in absolute chaos. The employees escaped from the enormous threat that was inside J. Jonah Jameson’s office. This large threat had a great, green tail with a stinger at its tip, razor-sharp claws, and dark green full-body nano-armor. Its eyes were large and glowed through the darkness of the helmet. “Jameson, where’s the parker kid?” he interrogated.  
“PARKER? Why do you need Parker?!” Jameson barked back.   
“I just need him- please, no one needs to get hurt.”  
“No one needs to get hurt...then why are you terrorizing MY WORKPLACE!”   
“I just need to find the kid, he’ll lead me to Spider-Man”   
“SPIDER-MAN? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH HIM?!”   
“It’s only business.”   
“Then you shoulda ask. Not ask Picklepuss for my whereabouts-” a certain webhead hilariously intruded.  
“SPIDER-MAN!” Both men shouted.  
“Yep, the one and only. Although I do appreciate you scaring the living crap out of Picklepuss right now, you’re also harming innocent bystanders. So let’s say we’ll take this outside!”   
“Agreed.” The green individual dropped Jameson and charged at Spider-Man.   
“Let’s make this quick,” He sharply added. Then he grabbed Spidey and threw him through the brick wall. But the webhead immediately recovered and swung himself to the rooftop.   
“Let’s play chase the Spider!” The Webhead declared. Instantly, the large foe appeared in front of him.   
“Wow, you’re much larger than I thought. But hey, we’re both arachnids, you being a scorpion, cuz you kinda look like one… and me being a spider… can’t we work our differences out!” He comedically pointed out.  
“No.” He launched himself at Spidey and viciously attacked. While Spider-Man’s attacks were quick and acrobatic, his foe's attacks were sloppy and rather desperate. He threw himself like a ragdoll, which created plenty of damage. But his punches released immense power, much more powerful than Spidey’s. And the strength of the monstrous tail was overwhelming. Every attack from that tail sliced through Peter’s suit, on his arm, lower torso, and chest. But the tail’s biggest strength was its grip because it could squeeze its victims like an anaconda. And unfortunately, Spidey couldn’t avoid that attack. The Tail aggressively took hold of the Webhead’s body.   
“I gotta say… loving the big green eyes, although the green big tail is a bit… much,” Spidey pointed out.   
“Are you usually this CHATTY?” he snarled.   
“WOW… you do not know me at all.”   
Immediately the tail slithered onto his neck and actively squeezed onto him. Peter felt trapped, because of the inability to breathe. Slowly, he lost consciousness.  
“Yeah… you’re right, I don’t,” He sharply admitted. Instantly his foe thrashed the defeated wall-crawler on the ground. He bounced the body as if it was a basketball.   
“I’m really sorry kid… I really am.”   
Before the monstrous individual was ready to land the final blow, strong winds picked up around him.  
It was an NYPD helicopter. “STAND DOWN FREAKS! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! DO NOT MOVE OR WE WILL SHOOT!” They announced.   
The individual turned around and witnessed the police before him. Their weapons pointed in their direction. He released the grip of his tail and dropped the webhead. “I’m sorry about this,” he muttered to himself. Suddenly he launched a liquid projectile from his tail to the cockpit of the police helicopter. Instantaneously, the cockpit started to fall apart. Piece by piece. The cops inside felt they were burning inside, and lost control of their chopper. Their screams could be heard by Spider-Man, who faced flat on the ground. From all the loud grunts of pain, he still rose back up. Although there were no signs of his foe, he had to save those cops inside, no matter how broken his body was. He launched himself at that helicopter and created a platform through his webs, so the helicopter safely landed. "You guys okay?" Both cops nodded which brought relief to him.  
Until the officers from below called out to Spider-man, “FREEZE SPIDER-MAN! DO NOT MOVE!” They pointed their guns at him, ready to fire.   
“AW C’MON!” The Webslinger exclaimed as he instantly dashed from the police.

Later that day in New York

As the time of day passed, Spider-man sat there at a ledge of a tall tower. He stared upon the beautiful city of New York that he called home. The place that he's protected for a year. With the help of his web-shooters and wall-crawling abilities. But his home hasn't accepted him with open arms. From police officers ready to arrest him any second they get, to citizens who've labeled him as a freak, his home never accepted him. ‘I protect this city at night… but people have become ungrateful, and now cops are coming after me… What if this isn’t what I was called to do-’   
Suddenly, a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts, “Didn’t think I would see you here Spider.” Her voice was soft, yet flirtatious… it was instantly recognizable.   
“Hey, Cat… wait Cat?!”   
He turned around and saw a snow haired broad in black leather. From the outfit to her sharp claws, it was all too familiar, it was Black Cat.  
"Of all the people I thought I'd see today, you're the last person I'd expect."  
“Why do you say that?”   
“Well last time… nevermind…”   
“You don’t sound very cherry?”   
“Well being wanted for arrest isn’t the best feeling and the fact that I got beat by this green dude with a tail.”   
“Wait, the green dude with a tail?”   
“Yeah… do you know about him?”   
“Well they’ve dubbed him the Scorpion”   
“Well, that name fits him well.”   
“There’s been whispers from Tinkerer about this project, for someone big”   
“Wait… you’re talking about another Big Man of Crime, how? All the crimelords of New York… from The Master Planner, Tombstone, Silver-Mane to The Goblin, they’re all gone!”   
“So you’ve taken out his competition. Now he’s bigger than any one of those Crimelords, even-”   
“Tombstone?! No that’s not possible…”   
“Spider, he’s the biggest of them all.”   
He paused with one realization on his mind, ‘so that man in black was right!’  
“Does this guy have a name?”   
“His men have been very secretive, but when a cat starts clawing away at the yarn, it tends to unravel…”   
“Unravel… how exactly?”   
“One of his choked on the yarn… and unraveled his name, Kingpin.”   
“Kingpin? Gotta admit better name than Tombstone. But it’ll still be fun beating this guy.”  
“Careful there Spider. You’re just a little spider caught up in a larger war.”   
“I know this guy is dangerous-”   
“No, he’s more than that. He has… everyone in his pocket, from the cops to well-trained assassins. And if he ever gets a peek under that mask of yours, he’ll come after everyone you’ve ever cared about.”  
“That’s why those cops are after me?” he asked.  
“Mhmm… his influence is spread like wildfire.”  
“Well… thanks for the info Cat, this helps.”   
“Don’t mention it.”   
“You know, i-if you ever want to take this guy down together… you know where to-” He turned around to see nobody beside him. She vanished into the night.   
“Find me,” he muttered to himself. 

To Be Continued…   
To address the comments from the Prologue & Chapter 1. Comments as of 7/19/20  
JohnJuanRamboJr35: Dude we need more of this  
-Thank you, that’s very encouraging that you’re enjoying my fic. -TheTypingAvocado  
LightSpecter141: I wonder if you are open to giving Gwen superpowers and I'm NOT talking about Spider-Gwen?   
-I’m unsure about giving Gwen superpowers. It seems out of place. -TheTypingAvocado  
Gino: is peter hooking up with liz on this fic, or with someone else?  
-Hmm… Liz is going to have a big role in the next few chapter -TheTypingAvocado  
OBSERVER01 nli : Nice start. Keep up the good work.  
-Appreciate the support!- TheTypingAvocado  
The Champions : Awesome dude please update dying to find out more It is good to see someone still making stories   
-I know, especially the fics in Spectacular Spider-Man have gone dry. -TheTypingAvocado

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Message: 
> 
> For those who have watched the drama, Euphoria on HBO, before the episode begins, ‘the cold opens,’ when each character’s backstory was told beautifully. That was the same concept as Wilson Fisk’s backstory. I know it had sensitive themes, and I hope it wasn’t too much to handle. Also, Mac Gargan’s background and his transformation into The Scorpion will be explored in the next chapter. And if you haven’t noticed, the main inspirations of this story are Spectacular Spider-man (Duh), Spider-Man No More Comic, Spider-man 2, Netflix’s Daredevil Series, Spider-Man PS4, Spider-Man Homecoming   
> Always, feel free to leave constructive criticism on this chapter and future chapters, and so thankful for those who checked out this story as well.


	4. Independent Variable (Chapter 3)

Independent Variable (Chapter 3)

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Spectacular Characters or Marvel Characters. Just keep that in mind.

Stress- 30 years earlier

When his parents first set their eyes on MacDonald Gargan, they saw a disappointment. In school, he always needed guidance through the simplest of math problems. He’d a learning issue and was overwhelmed by a simple problem. That led to poor grades on tests which ultimately led to disappointed parents. His parents believed that high grades could lead to a successful career, although his parents never made it past sophomore year, so how would they know? By the end of his 4 years of high school, he had a below-average 1.7 GPA, which led to the same disappointed parents. So they believed it was inevitable for Mac to be employed as a cashier at the nearest department store, for an eternity. He believed that he would be a failure as well. Unfortunately, he never found his own life so fascinating. In fact, he found more interest in other people’s lives. Which led to him developing an unusual skill.   
Fortunately, Mac had one uncommon talent that could be useful, stalking people. Creepy… yes, but He learned more about people when he followed them, to the grocery store, or their apartments. His eyes constantly peered into the windows of other apartments. His ears listened to his next-door neighbors' affairs & arguments and secrets. His mind studied those people's lives, like if he was in class. His hand took notes of others while he watched. Sometimes Mac would know more about those he observed than his own parents.   
Months later, his ‘talents’ led him to the eyes of the CEO and founder of OsCorp, Norman Osborn. Since his company was an up and coming chemical & robotics manufacturing company, and there were many larger competitors, who could swallow them up. So Norman had to find dirt on the larger companies. Luckily his associates knew an odd man who specialized at ‘investigating’ others, which was Mac Gargan. They found him and offered to pay for his private detective school. Once Mac finished with his school, Norman Osborn hired him as his personal Private Investigator. He actually found success in the job Osborn gifted him. Since Gargan found dirt on some of OsCorp’s competition, Norman found his job important and funded Gargan’s firm. And those funds helped pay for plenty of this, from the rent of the apartment to the hospital bills for his wife and daughter. Their constant stay at the hospital’s made bills piles up. Occasionally the money problems overwhelmed him. Not a day goes by, where he’d want to take his wife and child home, and care for them there. But he knew that his loved ones would get better… in a hospital. That’s what kept him going every day, his family. In his mind, without those two, there was nothing worth living for.   
Unfortunately, his wife had stage 4 ovarian cancer. The news tore Mac apart. She was his foundation. She believed in Mac’s abilities when others didn’t. She believed in his choices. Most importantly, she believed in him.   
Unfortunately, they had a few months left to spend together. She passed a couple of months later. That tore him apart. Occasionally, he wouldn’t get out of the house to visit his daughter at the hospital. Other days, he arrived at the hospital miserable. Immediately his daughter began to see the fall of her father. From his dark under-eye bags to his slouched posture, life tore Gargan down. Although he would mask his true feelings with a smile, every time he entered his daughter’s hospital room. There was only one thing Mac lived for: his daughter. Months passed as a whole desk filled up with bills piled up in his office. It extremely overwhelmed him and sometimes he had to sacrifice. HELL, some days in the blistering summer, he wouldn’t use AC in the office, to save a few bucks.  
Then, the best possible news Gargan has heard for a while. Norman Osborn had a job for him: to investigate Donald Menken’s whereabouts. And immediately he got the job done. Norman told him that a large check would be there for him. It encouraged him that his PI firm wasn’t wasted. He knew Norman would need him to find dirt on the competition, that’s how the madman worked.   
However that same night, Mac tuned into the news. There were some things on the news that would completely surprise him, but to hear BREAKING news of, ‘NORMAN OSBORN HAS BEEN KILLED,’ completely broke him. He believed Osborn was his source of income and that was gone. Spider-man was never someone he believed as a hero, but his daughter believed he was. Although there was one silver lining for Gargan. The whole city was on the hunt for the wallcrawler, especially the Daily Bugle’s J. Jonah Jameson. He knew his very own employee, Peter Parker, took the pictures of the wanted Spider-Man and he was curious how he took those pics. Jameson wanted to find this Menace that dwelled in his city and bring him to jail. And one way to that was through Mac Gargan. So he approached him and quickly hired him to investigate Peter. However, he would regret that. It turns out, stalking people in public was EXTREMELY difficult, especially for the likes of Peter Parker.   
Peter definitely knew something was off when a mysterious man was at every stop he’s at. Either that or at every turn he made through the busy street of Manhattan. In turn, started to mess with the mysterious man, giving him misleading clues about his life. Which left Gargan stumped. It was like the kid toyed with him. So he’d have to go to an anxious Mr. Jameson, with nothing on Peter Parker. And when he told Jameson his failure, the loudmouth editor was not too happy. “GET OUTTA MY OFFICE! YOU’RE FIRED!”  
“C’mon Jameson, give me another chance”  
“YOU ARE FIRED!”  
As expected, Mac wasn’t ecstatic about being fired. HELL, who wouldn’t be furious. He didn't have any cash and wasted time on a stupid case. SO much time that he could’ve spent with his daughter, ALL gone. His feet dragged through the crowds of New Yorkers and to his office. But once he entered the hallway, he noticed a mysterious man in a suit, who waited by the door.   
“Excuse me, are you Mr. Gargan?” The man asked. He approached him to shake his hand.  
“Yeah… can I help you?”   
“Actually, I’m here to help you.”  
“Uh-how?”  
“Well, my employer would love to offer you a job.”  
“Your employer?”  
“Yes, he believes in your skills and offers you the job? However, it’s up to you?”  
“Um- of course…who wouldn’t?”   
“Then it’s settled, you’re hired. We’ll meet again to discuss the details”  
“Okay thank you… I never got your name?”  
“How rude of me, it’s James Wesley…”

Present Day at Fisk Tower  
“Wesley, I need to see him…” He pleaded. Then Gargan urgently barged through the large double doors.  
“Not now Mr. Gargan, get some rest and come back later,” James Wesley insisted.   
“What is it you need to tell me, Mr. Gargan?” The voice roared through the shadows of the room.   
“Spider-Man’s still alive…” he muttered to himself.  
“Excuse me, He’s what?” Wesley asked.  
“ALIVE OKAY… I couldn’t finish the job. HELL, I don't even know how the New York Police Department hasn't chased me down.” Gargan panicked.  
"Relax Gargan… everything is being taken care of."  
“HOW! I didn’t even want to even touch spider-man… they could’ve busted my place RIGHT-” By the tone   
“Gargan, the police have been taken care of… they’ll discredit the incident… they’ll discredit everything Spider-Man has said. And Yes, this is unfortunate news, Mr. Gargan, however, you can still be useful”   
“You mean it? Are you going to give me another shot?”   
“Yes but this time, bring him to me alive.”  
“Alive? I thought-”  
“I know what I wanted before, just BRING THE SPIDER-MAN, HERE TO ME ALIVE!”  
“How are you going to do that sir?”  
“Contact Mr. Brice, Mr. Mason, and Mr. Brown, I’ve got a job for them… and Mr. Gargan, is your suit fireproof?”  
“I believe so… ” Gargan curiously asked.  
“Perfect.” 

Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School

High School was a stressful time, especially for students like Peter Parker. He rushed through the double doors of the hallway. Just as a sweaty Peter entered his 2nd-period class, he bumped into Liz… literally. He fumbled his large books and other belongings before they landed before her feet.   
“Uh, Liz... I’m really sorry I ditched you with the lawyer thing yesterday,” Peter mentioned. He barely gazed at her soft brown eyes. He couldn’t gaze at her… after all, he’s done to her.   
“It’s whatever, Petey. Sometimes I forget what I’ve gotten into when we got partnered up…”  
“Yeah- well once we’re done with this project… you don’t have to talk to me again, so that’s a plus...” He frowned. Liz tried her hardest to maintain her anger at Peter, but she couldn’t.   
The varsity cheerleader couldn’t stand the sight of Peter's depressed expression on his face.  
“Well yeah, but I guess there’s good news, Mr. Murdock agreed to help us with the interview,” she softly mentioned.  
“That’s great… we should definitely prepare questions for the interview.”  
“Yeah, but Mrs. Nelson didn't give us sample questions.”  
“She did, didn’t she? I thought she gave-oh wait… Hobie has it!”  
“By the way, where’s Hobie?”  
They searched around the class, but their groupmate Hobie Brown wasn’t there.   
“Um… where do you want to meet up?” Peter abruptly brought up.  
“You wanna try… my place?” Her eyes glowed up once she mentioned it.   
“Y- your house? is that good with you?” He nervously asked.  
"Um, is that …good with you, Petey?"  
"yeah, it- it sounds good," he mumbled to himself.  
'what have you gotten yourself into, Pete?!'

Hours passed as lunchtime rolled around. Harry sat his bottom on the lunch benches and called for Peter, "Hey Pete, you wanna hang at the silver spoon after school?"  
"Can I get a raincheck on that?"  
"What’re you busy with today, Pete?"  
"I- um… I'm going to… Liz's house to work on our project…"  
“Wait, you’re doing a project with YOUR EX?!”  
Suddenly some students stopped and stared at Peter and Harry, then went back to their conversations.   
“Shhh… Harry, not so loud”  
"My bad, but does this mean, you know…"  
"you know what?"  
"Pete, you know… you two are … getting back together"  
Peter immediately choked on his sandwich, "WHAT NO! I'm trying to be her friend, dating her didn't work"  
"maybe… because you didn't make it work"  
“What? you mean that?”  
“It's like… you didn’t even try”  
“WHAT!?”  
“I’m serious Pete, I get why Liz dumped you… you barely tried to be there for her.”   
Peter thought roared in his head, ‘Well I had more Spider related problems at the time!’  
“I see where you’re coming from, Har”  
“You should seriously try getting back with her, she’s good for you… like how Gwen is for me!”  
Peter’s eyebrows rose up when he heard Harry utter those words. Ever since he confessed his genuine feelings for her, she was stuck in his mind… and it made him CRAZY!   
“Hey Pete, hey Harry, what’re you two talking about?”  
“Uh- you know, the bro talk… ”  
‘Y-yeah, the ‘bro talk,’ man I’ve heard that before,’ Peter thought.

Allan Residence

“Oh- uh, Petey, you’re here early…” she sounded surprised. Who wouldn’t be, Peter Parker is early for something… at all.   
“Yeah, weird right?”   
“Very, hehe… um, come on in!”  
“Thanks… is Hobie coming?”  
“Well, I texted him earlier, but he hasn’t responded…”   
“Alright, we should work on the questions ahead, then he’ll help us with the recording session.”  
“That seems fair, let’s work, but first… do you want a sprite?” she offered. 

An hour passed as Peter and Liz worked on their project. He constantly sipped on his sprite, while brainstorming a few questions. They had all their work, spread in front of them. However, Peter yawned louder than Mufasa roared. It really did fill up the room, luckily there was nobody else in the house except for the two high school seniors.  
“Um Petey, are you always this tired?” Liz curiously asked. She observed his tired behavior, sometimes she would get distracted by the constant yawning.   
“I-uh… had a long night,” Peter gulped.  
“With?”  
“Uh- studying… and homework, you know, my normal type of night.”  
“Okay, but if you’re too sleepy, you can nap on the couch… if you’d like,” Liz kindly offered.   
“Uh- no need… hopefully the Sprite’s enough. But thanks for the offer Liz, plus you’ve been great to me…” he gratefully appreciated. “even if I haven’t been great to you, lately,” he bluntly added.  
“Oh-um… that-that’s okay”  
“No it’s not okay, I’ve treated you terribly, ever since last year…”   
Their conversation became abruptly silent.   
“and I didn’t mean to. But things got in the way,” Peter clarified.   
“…um things like G- Gwen?” she stuttered.  
“What?”   
“The way you looked at her last year, especially on Valentine's Day…”  
“You knew?”  
Without warning, Peter would soon learn, that was a stupid question.  
“HELL everyone at our table knew, PETER!” All her boiled up frustration blasted at the top of her lungs.   
“Every single day we dated, Sally’s constantly in my ear, telling me to dump you… for another guy on the football team! And every day I told her, never… I wanted to be with you! Everyday! Even when Valentine’s Day rolled around, I hoped it would pay off… all those missed dates, all the waiting, for one SUPER romantic date. But… the way you gazed into her eyes… the way you treated her, it floored me. Then you LEAVE for the Bugle… like you usually do!   
The thing is, I-I felt more alone on that date than any other… it wasn’t because you left, no… I’ve gotten used to it… it’s the fact that I was in LOVE with someone who wasn’t in love with me...”  
Peter’s left absolutely speechless… he tried to find something to say, to deny how he felt. But he couldn’t.   
“I-” the only letter that could utter out of his mouth. Her heart dropped. Her eyes became watery. Then, Liz furiously stood up from her chair, burst into her room, and slammed the door.  
There was Peter, who froze in his seat, with one thought on his mind, ‘what can I do right? I try being honest and it blows up in my face.’ He headed towards her bedroom door and heard nothing but her soft sobbing.  
‘What am I supposed to tell her to make things right? Am I supposed to tell her that I’m Spider-Man… ’  
Suddenly, his eyes shifted focus, as he gazed out the window. Then he observed how people ran in the other direction. Then, he heard police sirens speed through the streets. Soon after, firetrucks and emergency vehicles sped by the buildings. His eyes followed. “What the heck is happening?” he murmured to himself. His mind already knew what’s going on.   
‘Ugh… I’ve gotta go… wait- I should tell Liz, but there’s no time to talk, I gotta go… plus what else is there to ruin.’ Peter checked around to make sure none watched him as he suited up in his red and blue pajamas. Then he threw his clothes into his backpack, ‘this shouldn’t be long.’

Hell’s Kitchen

“What the hell…” Spider-man murmured as he witnessed the sky filled with ash.   
Many of Hell’s Kitchen apartment buildings were going through, literal hell. And those who lived inside those buildings. Brick burned into brimstone. Curtains Dissolved into ash. And windows shattered into pieces of shards. Hell’s Kitchen became Hell for a literal second.   
Some people in the lower level apartments narrowly escaped, while those above would have to get lucky. Firefighters and cops tried their best to evacuate the people who lived in higher-level apartments, especially the elderly. Medics brought injured residence on wheelchairs.   
Spidey swung by the police officers, which the officers took notice of. One officer pointed his gun at him, “Spider-Man, you’re under arrest for the murder of Norman Osborne.”   
“C’mon, you really believe that… Officer… Davis?”   
“Just doing my job, Spidey… what you’ve done in this city, officers have lost their lives because of these supervillains you’ve created…”   
“But I never created those guys-”   
“But ever since you’ve appeared, bigger and badder individuals emerged”  
Suddenly thunderous screams pierced their ears.   
“There’s still someone in there!”  
Spider-man immediately headed toward the building, until Officer Davis stopped him. “C’mon, I gotta go in there!”   
“And I’ll be waiting for you.”  
Peter immediately rolled his eyes as he turned away from the officer and darted to the buildings. 

He quickly plunged through the shattered windows. Spidey looked around the burning rooms and tried to locate those trapped residents, through their screams.   
“Hello? ANYONE! I’M HERE TO HELP!” Spidey continued to search throughout the buildings to find those trapped. Finally, he heard movement in the upper level, so he frantically burst through the level. “I’M HERE TO HELP!” immediately, his Spider-sense alarmed. ‘WHat the-’  
BAM! BAM! BAM! The webhead was hit with multiple blasts, which sent him into the wall. He’s stunned for a sec because he slowly looked up to see the individual who attacked him. Who he saw wasn’t a friendly face, although it was a familiar face.   
“BUG, it’s been a while!” his foe mentioned.   
“SHOCKER!”  
“I’m sorry we couldn’t catch up sooner because you fell into our trap…”  
“What-our?”  
Suddenly, His spidey sense alarmed. But it was too late, he’s been stabbed by the stinger of the tail. Under the mask, Peter’s eyes bulged out of his sockets as a scorpion tail immensely gripped Spider-Man’s abdomen.   
“I’m sorry, kid… I really am,” Scorpion mentioned.   
It slithered around his body like a snake. And once it traveled and gripped his neck, where breathing was difficult. Soon, his vision would only dissolve into darkness.  
“C’mon let’s go bring the Bug to them, not a big fan of this smoke.” 

Fisk Tower

The Scorpion arrived at the tower with Spider-Man’s mangled body. His body’s trapped in the immense grip of the scorpion tail. “Sir, he’s here.” Gargan dropped the beaten body before Wilson’s feet. Once he was released, Peter’s gasping for air, as he breathed heavily.   
“Thank you, Scorpion. You may leave us… Wesley, make sure Mr. Brice gets his payment.”  
Wesley answered with a subtle nod. “But sir, for your protection-” Scorpion pointed out.  
“GO… NOW!” Fisked snapped. Immediately, he sluggishly left through the door.  
“So … I’ve heard a little cat speak about me,” Wilson mentioned as he took off his matte black suit jacket.  
“How’d you know that?”  
“I have my own contacts, Spider-Man.”   
Spider-man drowsily scanned the room, and could immediately recognize who he was.   
“Well, secret identity advice, MR. Kingpin. You can’t bring me into your building and expect not to know who you are, Wilson Fisk.”  
“Although I appreciate the advice, Spider-Man, I don’t need to hide behind a mask…”   
“Tell that to the thugs you hired, and the men you hid behind...”   
“Those ‘thugs’ weren’t intended to hide me. They were meant to spread my vision through this city and expand New York City’s potential.” Fisk continued to roll his long-sleeved shirt unto the top of his forearm.  
“You… of all people believe you’re the good guy, trying to save the city...”   
Wilson Fisk took a deep breath, “There are no such things as good or bad guys. There are just people with diverse agendas… Now tell me Spider-Man, do you truly believe you’re a hero… because you’re a crimefighter?”   
“I-I’m just trying to do all I can to keep this city afloat, from men like you.”   
“So you do believe…hmm because you save ‘innocent’ lives? Is that how you naively view a hero?”   
“I try my best… to help the little guy.”   
“Isn’t that what all you and the man in black want? Stand for those who can't stand for themselves… because that’s an intention I respect that. I really do.”   
“Your respect… makes me want to take a shower.”  
“A shower would be fitting… if you survive. But your reckless behavior caused unnecessary casualties in your fights with these ‘supervillains,’ that Tombstone created for you.”   
“So you keep in touch with the Big Tombster, huh? I guess crime bosses are cut from the same cloth.”   
“We are NOT! Lincoln created his criminal empire for his… selfish desires,” Wilson instantly snapped. “I’m trying to help make New York City a better place, just like you,” he calmly added.  
“You sure about that?”   
“Yes, well… I’m torn because of the damage you cause for those who are in your crossfire, especially for this specific black cat.”  
“If you lay even a finger on her…”   
He instantly grabbed him by his torn costume and brought him close. So close in fact that he could smell his breath.   
“... you’ll do what? You’re a child playing the pathetic hero. Like… do you not realize the amount of pain you’ve caused for some families. BECAUSE I had to experience that, first hand… to be in your crossfire… and do you know, WHAT IT'S LIKE?” Fisk exclaimed as he shook the webhead’s body. Spidey tried lunging at him until Fisk instantly grabbed him by the neck and choke slammed him to the floor.   
“To watch those you love take their final breath… in front of you. When you couldn’t do a single thing to stop their pain. Because that's what I’d experience. I had the privilege to watch her… and my unborn son, bleed out in my arms. I REPEATEDLY CALLED FOR YOU, Spider-Man, to HELP MY WIFE! But you… swing past us and all those burning cars.” He furiously continued.   
His overwhelming strength began to tear Spider-Man into two. His two heavy fists pounded on the web head's chest. Those fists viciously pounded the hero into the ground like a young child, throwing a tantrum. Then the monstrous Kingpin beat the boy like he was a pound of meat. He thrashed him around like a gorilla toying with a doll.  
“Once we arrived at the hospital, it’s too late. They’re gone, before my eyes. She’s gone… and all I’m left with is blood hands. And there’s blood on your hands too! You’re no hero, you’re just a child, playing the hero. Because you don’t understand what your reckless actions can lead to. And YOU’VE PROVED THAT and revealed your true colors after you KILLED MR. OSBORN!” Fisk furiously exclaimed.   
“You mean the GREEN GOBLIN?! He was a lunatic like you!” Spidey blurted before taking another blow to the stomach.  
“He’s a man who needed help, similar to my situation. But you didn’t help… at all. And look where that led us.” He landed another heavy punch to the injured webhead gut and threw him to the hard floor.   
A furious Fisk unleashed more of his anger on his head. Peter’s like a helpless boy, cornered in the boxing ring. The monstrous shadow of Wilson Fisk swallowed the teenager up.   
“YOU REALLY THINK… YOU CAN SAVE THIS CITY, BY WEARING A STUPID COSTUME?! NO, YOU’RE A CHILD, ATTEMPTING TO PLAY THE HERO!” He unleashed another lethal blow on the body.   
Suddenly he stopped. Fisk breathed heavily as he stared at the teenager’s beaten body. He stepped back from the body and analyzed what he'd done. He knows what he needs to do.   
“Wesley, hand me your gun.” Wesley glared at him before he handed him his weapon. Fisk loaded the matte black fire-arm. “Boy, there is one thing you cannot see… this city doesn’t need you anymore. They’ve turned on you. It’s unfortunate, but don’t worry, you won’t have to experience that… anymore.”  
Wilson aimed the weapon at the beaten body, his finger ready to pull that infamous trigger.   
BANG!   
He missed. The bullet missed the body.   
Suddenly, Spider-Man’s body jolted out of the bullet's trajectory.   
Unfortunately for Wilson, the webhead’s spidey sense was too alert to ignore. He wobbly rose back up from the floor.   
BANG!   
Luckily, the bullet missed again as it barely grazed the suit. Peter knew he had to flee out of the building. And the only way was through the window.   
The third time’s a charm, right.  
BANG!   
The final bang roared in the room. Unfortunately, this bullet sped itself in the webhead's calf. It was lodged in his leg. That stunned Peter for a sec, but he knew what the end goal was. So, the battered Spidey desperately limped his way to a possible exit point and launched himself out the window.   
He disappeared before their very eyes.   
“… Do you want to send Scorpion and Prowler-” Wesley proposed.  
“NO!” The large crime boss interrupted. “He won’t get far. Place police officers around the ground. If they ever see him, execute him,” Kingpin calmly ordered.   
“Yes sir.”

Allan Residence 

Alone in her parent’s home, Liz lazily lounged on the sofa and binged her favorite tv show, Victorious. Although she multitasked. With one hand, her best friend, Sally Avril babbled on the phone. On the other hand, the tv remote.  
“Are you sure you don’t like the quarterback from Brooklyn High, he’s cute… in a way and a PERFECT MATCH for you!”  
“You know me and quarterbacks Sal… it’s not the best fit”  
“But the homecoming dance is coming up LIZ?! It’s the dance of the semester. And I don’t want you to be dateless, or even worse… be with geeks like Parker! BY THE WAY, I still can’t believe that geek Parker ditched you again?! Isn’t this the 7th time?”  
“I know, I know Sally… you know, Petey’s just busy with the Bugle.”  
“AS USUAL! Seriously, Liz, you gotta stop falling for him and his excuses. He doesn’t deserve you!”  
Liz fell into silence. She stared at Peter’s worn-out backpack and blanked out on Sally. ‘Why’d he leave his bag here?’  
“Uh Lizzy, is everything alright over there?”

Suddenly, there was a profound ‘THUD,’ that came from her room, which alerted her. It brought chills down her spine and arm.  
“Sally, I might’ve to call you back...”  
“WAIT WHA-” Sally exclaimed… before getting hung up on.   
Liz rose from the living room couch and her hand gripped a wooden baseball bat that laid beside Mark’s deserted room.  
“Hello… anyone there,” Liz nervously gulped. She held the bat upright and readied to strike. Her head sharply peeked into her room to see … nothing but the night’s breeze, that flowed through the wide-open windows… That relieved her for a moment… until she realized that her windows were WIDE OPEN! She moved further into the room to investigate what entered the room.   
Immediately, her nose could smell dirt and blood in the room. Her heart exploded in her chest, faster than the speed of sound. And her eyes darted to a body, face flat on the ground. She could tell that the dirtied and torn red and blue suit belonged to a familiar wallcrawler.   
She instantly hurried over to his side and turned over the body to see his damaged body. Her mind immediately thought to call 911… like it’s instinct. But her mind was curious about the web-slinger's identity. In her mind, she wanted to know who this crimefighter was before he’s sent to the hospital.   
She contemplated, having many people she envisioned as Spider-Man. So her curiosity got the best of her and began to gradually peel the mask off the face. Her fingers could feel how worn out the spandex of the mask was. It felt like it held on with a single, fragile thread.   
Finally, the spidey mask was off the face, which led to a revelation that had her eyes bulge out of the socket.  
The discovery of a bloody and bruised face left her dreadfully speechless. The mask dropped to the floor, like her heart. She grasped his battered face, but she couldn’t stand the sight of his current state. ‘This can’t be… no-no, please God,’ A panicked Liz yelled in her head.   
Her hand trembled. Her heart shattered. Before she could quietly utter the words, “... P-Petey?”

To Be Continued…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To address the fanfiction comments from chapter 2 as of 9/26/20  
> Gino: so... i guess that's a no. oh well. will she at least become Firestar like in your other fic?  
> -Well stay tuned to find out… Also no, she will not be Firestar. -TheTypingAvocado  
> OBSERVER01 nli: Nice chapter. Keep up the good work.  
> -Thank you for all your support-TheTypingAvocado  
> Guest: Will Gwen become Ghost Spider?   
> -who is ‘ghost spider?’ And no, she won't. Gwen’s role isn’t as prominent.  
> Guest: You know gwen stacy truly love Peter parker, she and Peter want to be together, but when harry dad die, who is alive by way, Peter wants gwen to stay harry, because doesn't want harry to be alone and going back to the green goblin. She knows her feeling is to peter parker/spiderman, not harry, she should come clean to harry, and her true feeling is peter. She not like this relationship with harry, she wants harry just as friends.  
>  -Although I do agree, Gwen and Peter were meant to be. That’s what the show built them up by the end of season 2. You just may have to stay tuned to find out for Gwen. -TheTypingAvocado  
> Lol-kun: I had just finished watching the spectacular spider-man (for the third time), I wanted to see a continuation fic of that series and I found yours that I liked, will Carnage appear? I hope the next chapters.  
> -thanks for the feedback… although i do not plan to have carnage to appear in this fan-fic. But always feel free to leave any ideas that y’all want in this fanfic. - TheTypingAvocado
> 
> Message from the Author, TheTypingAvocado:   
> The outcome of this chapter may be familiar from an episode of Netflix’s Daredevil, but I tried to put my own twist on it. Of course, this Wilson Fisk/Kingpin is inspired by the Netflix series, because that show is a masterpiece. I added Norman Osborn into Mac Gargan’s past life because Norman mentioned him in the last episode of the series. I’m trying to make this a sequel to season 2 of the series, but I also want to add to it.  
> In my opinion, Liz Allan was the most overlooked character in the whole series (and I’m willing to defend that).   
> Also, Sally was included because her character is misunderstood. She is Liz’s best friend and she does care about her, and Peter has treated everyone in his life, including Liz very poorly. So she’s just looking out for her best friend and her best interest, although we all want Peter and Liz together. (or is that just me?) Although she still wants to keep the social pyramid in place, which is her flaw.   
> Anyways, feel free to leave constructive criticism on this chapter and future chapters, it helps. :) *My apologies for not updating more frequently, I get distracted easily*
> 
> REST IN PEACE CHADWICK BOSEMAN [11/29/76 -8/28/20]


	5. Dependent Variable (Chapter 4)

Dependent Variable (Chapter 4)  
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Spectacular Characters or Marvel Characters.   
*Also this chapter is going to be long*

Discovery - Allan Residence

Few things in life that are unexpected and genuinely left Peter breathless. Swinging through the beautiful New York sights is one and another one of those few things is waking up, in your ex-girlfriend’s bedroom, miraculously ALIVE! Peter Parker's eyes slowly opened, like a newborn baby, and was blinded by the sunlight that pierced through the windows. But he wasn’t in his bed, he was on the soft carpet. His eyes wide opened as he realized he was in an unfamiliar place. His hands touch his face and realize his mask and suit were stripped off him, only left in his boxer briefs and a thin blanket. He immediately rose up off the soft carpet, but he felt a sharp pain from his calf. He immediately removed the blanket to reveal his dark bruises and white patches all over him.   
‘Huh?’ His hand felt around his legs and the back of his calf and felt the cloth bandages that wrapped around his bloody gunshot wound.   
Suddenly the door swung open as a familiar voice called out to him, “P-Petey… you need to lay down and rest.” Liz caught him and slowly dropped him down to the soft carpet. Peter looked up at her, in such a panic. ‘OH SHOOT!’   
“How’d- WHAT THE- W-WHERE’S MY SUIT?!” He frantically panicked as his eyes quickly darted around her room.   
“Relax Petey, it’s in your backpack… shredded in pieces” Liz reassured him as she tossed his backpack over to his side. “Petey… breathe, I told my mom I’m sick… so I could stay home …” She added, as her hand rested on his shoulders.  
Peter was confused, she wasn’t angry. Like she had the chance to kill him, right there and then… with no witnesses. But she didn’t. Probably she was tired, cause she looked exhausted, wearing no makeup, just a long, oversized green T-shirt and black sports shorts.  
“L-Liz… You patched me up?” His eyes stared at his stitched-up cuts.   
“Yeah … here, you may want to ice that bruise on your cheek,” she handed him a fresh ice pack.  
“T- thanks… ” he quietly spurted out. “When’d you learn to stitch?” he added.  
“Well, Mark would get into fights at night cause he couldn’t pay off his debts. Sometimes he has to deal with guns or knives... and guess who had to patch him up... especially before my parents came home from work would get shot. So this isn’t my first rodeo… sadly” she softly explained.  
All of a sudden, Liz’s mother called for her, “ELIZABETH! I made chicken noodle soup. I heard it helps with clearing sinuses!”   
“Coming Mama! You stay here, Petey.”  
Once she left, Peter laid back, still holding the ice pack to his bruises, and wondered, ‘How did I get myself into this!’ 

Fisk Tower

James Wesley approached his boss with unfortunate news. “Patrol Units have searched everywhere, but there was no corpse or no signs of his tracks” Wesley broke the news.  
“That’s fine, Wesley,” Wilson quickly dismissed.   
“Also, the Press would like to speak to you, about your campaign to be the Mayor. Especially the reporter from the Bugle, Ned Lee,” his assistant added.  
“Okay, and.”  
“You want to speak to the press, with these bruises all over you, wouldn’t they suspect anything?”  
“Ah, thank you for pointing that out Wesley,” Fisk went towards the nearest mirror to check his bruises.  
“Okay, so I’ll find someone to cover some of that u-”  
“No, I’ve realized that I can use this to my advantage,” Fisk interrupted him.   
“H-How exactly?”  
“This city doesn’t need new villains… They already have their biggest villain, their folk hero, Spider-Man. He’s currently being hunted down by police. And once these citizens know that a nominee for mayor was attacked by their hero… they’ll turn against him.” Fisk realized.   
“Manipulate the media?”  
“The press, especially Bugle, will eat this up! Then he’ll never roam these streets again, and if he does, they’ll chew him up and spit him out. LIKE THE INSECT HE IS! There will be no more Spider-Man swinging along these streets, that’s one thing I’ll guarantee for the people of this city!” The Kingpin proclaimed. 

Allan Residence 

The door flew open, as Liz walked in, holding a bowl of chicken noodle soup. “You like Chicken Noodle Soup, Petey?” she asked.  
“Yeah…” he answered softly. So she slowly handed the hot bowl into his injured hands. “You feel any better?”   
Peter felt around his body to find his injuries, “Well, I have a broken rib… or ribs… probably have several broken bones… and a headache” he answered.   
Then, he took a sip of the noodle soup, “But… Chicken Noodle Soup tastes great!”  
She grabbed the suit out of his bag and held it in front of her. Her hands felt all the holes and tears in his suit. “Uh- Petey, do you always end up like this?” Liz concernedly asked.   
She couldn’t even stare at him in the eye, as she dropped the suit in front of him.  
“No, y-you just caught me on a bad night… a really bad night,” Peter murmured. “You should've seen the other guy…” his voice strained.  
“Well, he probably got the short end of the stick”  
“Yeah…” he quietly murmured to himself.   
She immediately turned and faced him, “Why-um why weren’t you honest with me from the start… huh?” She tried holding back her tears that welled up.  
“Well, if someone like Electro found out, he'd wreak havoc on my life and the people in my life,” He explained.   
"That's not what I asked. Why'd you lie to me all those times, stand me up on dates or disappear at parties… did you not care about anyone to tell them the truth. The cold, honest truth that YOU, Peter Parker is Spider-Man!" The cheerleader expressed through her tears.  
Peter grew silent and sighed to himself.   
"Like honestly, standing me up on dates bugged me, but the one thing that pissed me off the most about you is that you lied… like why would you keep this to yourself?!" Liz added.  
"You think I like lying to you?! You think I like to hurt the people I care about! Of course not. I kept that to myself cause I thought you’d hate the fact that the guy you're dating, could get killed any night. I don't want you to worry, but you'll worry anyway cause that's how it works sometimes," Peter explained as Liz remained silent and listened. She had never seen Peter express himself to her like that.   
"And, I'm really sorry for not telling you this, it's just that, everything good I do as Spidey, I hurt the people I care about, like you... Liz. I never want to bring you all into this dangerous life, or else you'll end up like this. I-it’s not that I ever wished for these powers, a radioactive spider decided to bite me, and killed whatever chance I had to live my own life… I HATE that I’ve hurt you and everyone else… I just feel like I don’t have a choice," Peter admitted. Finally, Liz turned to see him and looked him in the eye.  
“But Petey, you do have a choice”   
“Not me, I never get that choice to take a day off.”  
“Everyone has a choice, Petey,” she softly held his hand.   
‘KNOCK KNOCK’   
Suddenly, their moment was cut off by a knock. “ELIZABETH! Your friend’s Aunt has called. Apparently, her nephew, Peter didn’t come home last night, and she was really frantic on the phone. She asked if we had any idea where he was and I know you two aren’t on the best of terms and-,” Liz’s mother mentioned.   
Peter’s eyes grew extremely wide as she looked at Liz. “A-and… what’d you tell her?” her voice rasped through the door.  
“I told her we had no clue where he’s been and hopefully he arrives home safe, do you have any idea where he is?”  
Liz’s hazel eyes immediately darted to Peter’s laying body, “Um… no, I’ve no clue. Tell her I hope he comes home safe.”  
“Aww, that’s sweet of you Mamacita! Anyways do you feel like you can go back to school tomorrow?”  
“Yeah, I feel pretty good... now," Liz responded.  
“That’s good, and also I’m going to the grocery store, do you need anything?”   
“NO We- I mean, I’m good!” Liz cautiously answered.  
“Oh okay then, make sure you get your homework done, and finish your chicken noodle soup!”  
“I will Mama,” Liz reassured her mother before she finally heard the front door close. 

Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School

As First Period English was about to pass, the students were coasting through the last few minutes. Meanwhile, Mary Jane Watson and Gwen sat right next to each other and worked on their presentation. “Uh- Mary Jane… Do you know what’s up with Pete? He hasn’t answered any of my texts and-” Gwen quickly asked.  
“I don’t know either Gwen, his Aunt asked me if I had any clue where he’d gone, but I told her I had no clue…”  
“I’m getting pretty worried, it’s unlike him to not be here, plus we still have to work on our presentation,” Gwen mentioned.   
“Me too, Peter is not like this, especially lately… has Harry talked to him?”  
Gwen nodded, “Well, he told me apparently Peter went to Liz’s house to work on their project…”  
“Wait what?! Is he getting back together with Liz?”  
“I don’t know…” Gwen quietly responded.   
“What the heck happened to you two anyway? You were supposed to-”  
“Shhh… we were supposed to… but then things got complicated with Harry and, now I don’t know what to do, Mary Jane!” the blonde quietly exasperated.   
“Girlfriend, you know you gotta be honest with both these guys, especially Harry”  
“ But he’ll be heartbroken…”  
“Guys get heartbroken after a break-up… It's natural, plus what’s more important, your happiness or Harry’s,” Mary Jane whispered. ‘Only if she knew what Harry went through!’  
Just then, their conversation was interrupted by the large group of gentlemen arguing about who was better, Spider-Man or the Man in Black.   
“NO! Spidey's better than that guy in the black pajamas!” Flash Thompson exclaimed. He shouted so loud that the classroom could hear.  
“Flash, you do realize you’re defending a guy who killed Norman Osborn!” Rand responded.  
"Plus, that guy in black is handling Hell's Kitchen, the roughest part of the city," one of the guys chimed in.  
“Don’t believe everything you see on the stupid news or the bugle”  
“There’s video evidence of it!”  
“Anyone with skills could tamper with that footage, easily!”  
“Gentlemen, gentlemen, did you all finish the writing activity?” Their English teacher questioned.  
“No, sir… ” the group of boys simultaneously answered.  
“So, get back to your seats and finish that and stop talking about this vigilante nonsense,” their English teacher ordered.  
“Plus, instead of discussing these vigilantes Mr. Thompson, you should be discussing how to play better! Like c’mon, this is the worst start we had in Midtown’s history,” Their teacher sharply expressed.   
The group of gentlemen was silent as they went back to their desk after their teacher’s comment, especially Flash. Until the star quarterback made it to his desk, he quietly murmured, “Only if Brown can stop being absent, we could score more touchdowns, by the way, where has he been?”   
“Don’t know, I always see his brother in the halls, we should ask him,” Rand pointed out. 

Allan Residence

Meanwhile, Liz used a damp washcloth to wipe the dry blood off Peter’s bare chest.   
‘Ah,’ his face grimaced as he felt the sting of his injury.   
“Sorry”   
“It’s fine…” he winched.   
“Um- does anyone else know… or am I the only one that has seen you beaten half to death?”  
“You’re the only one that knows,” Peter admitted.   
“Not even your Aunt?”  
“If she knew, she’d never let me go out again! She’d probably kill me or nag me to death”  
"Oh..."  
Peter sighed to himself, "I'm sorry for lying to you as well, this… was not the way I wanted you to find out… " he calmly apologized. Liz still couldn’t stare him in the eyes, because after all this time, she’d been lied to. Sure, she knew something was up with him, but being New York’s vigilante wasn’t even a thought she considered. She rose up to wash the washcloth, soaked in his blood, in her sink. “If you want to watch TV, the remote is in my small drawer”  
“Thanks…”   
“If you wanna watch Highschool Musical 2, it’s in the drawer as well,” she added.   
‘What’s High School Musical?’ Peter dragged his body over to open the drawer and found the remote. He turned on the TV and browsed through the large selection of channels.  
While Liz was at the sink, she noticed all of Peter’s blood on the washcloth, which was a concerning amount of blood that she squeezed out of it. ‘Jeez, that’s a ton of blood!’  
“You gotta be honest with me… who did this to you, Petey?”  
He finally settled on the New York News Channel, just to see the unthinkable.   
“Petey? Who-”  
“H-He did… Wilson Fisk,” he gulped. There were instant chills that appeared down his spine. Liz finally glared at the TV to see the man responsible. Wilson Fisk.   
He and his associates were speaking at a press conference to the media.   
"Ladies and Gentlemen of this beautiful city, I have something I must express to you all! Last night, I was attacked by the vigilante known as Spider-Man... at my office. If you don't believe me, I have witnesses of Spider-Man leaving my office." Peter's eyes bulged out of his socket as his heart dropped at that moment, 'Oh God.'  
"Spider-Man attacked you, Mr. Fisk?!" The Bugle reporter, Ned Lee asked.  
"Yes, I was as surprised as you are, but he tried to silence me through fear! He threatened me! But I won't let that happen! Our city shouldn't be run by dangerous vigilantes like Spider-Man. I won't allow that to happen, the people of New York City deserve better!"  
Peter could hear the people’s cheers through the TV, the cheers that he’s usually heard for him, were now for his adversary. That haunted him. Now, Wilson Fisk held the high ground. The Crime boss sounded like he was preaching at a church, by the way, he expressed himself.  
Fisk continued, "I believe we can thrive without the likes of these criminals and vigilantes on our streets and once I'm elected as mayor, one thing I'll guarantee you all is that Spider-Man will be NO MORE! He's the one who's caused pain to this city, but I'll end that pain because he will be no more! I will guarantee you that." He assured the public.   
With one single glance, Liz could tell Peter feared for his life at that moment. He bit his nails and his eyes were glued to the TV. Well, who wouldn't, his adversary gained the high ground and the support of people... he became the unstoppable force.  
"What happened?" she asked as she watched on the TV.  
"Fisk just made the public love and support him... and-"  
"And what?"  
“I don’t know what to do… And he may have just become UNBEATABLE, with the support of the people... if I ever swing out there again... he'll have snipers at every building, ready to fire at me... and if that's not enough, he'll send people after me and everyone I ever cared about... including-"  
"Including Me..." she gulped as her eyes grew wide to the realization. Now she had become a target just by being associated with Peter. She grabbed his bag, took out his mask, and held it in front of her. She felt the holes in the mask, slowly falling apart.   
"So this mask was not meant to hide your identity, it was meant to-"   
"Protect it, from people like Fisk," Peter explained.  
"But you're going to stop him?"  
"I-I don't know what I'm going to do..." He quietly admitted.   
Suddenly, they both heard the faint sound of the front doors being unlocked. “Elizabeth, can you help me with the groceries!” Liz’s mother called for her again.   
“Uh- coming Mama!” She glared back at Peter, who was still transfixed by the TV. She slowly exited through the door and immediately closed it.   
At that moment, Peter had no clue what his next move was. Kingpin threatened on live television that if he was ever seen as Spider-man again, he would have a bullet in his head. That was his guarantee for the whole city. ‘I have to head home, or else, Aunt May’s gonna start putting missing posters all over the city and I’m gonna put Liz in danger if I stay here’ Then he heard the doorknob slowly turn, Peter painfully sprung up, with his injured calf, and grabbed his dirty clothes from his book bag.   
“Uh- mom, what’re you going in my room for?” Liz sprung into action.   
“Oh, I was going to install the new shower curtain… pretty, isn’t it, it was on sale today”   
“Oh mama, you don’t gotta worry about it, I’ll do it.”   
“No no, Lizzy, it’s fine… just finish putting away those groceries”  
“Bu-but… um-” Liz tried her best not to sound overly suspicious, but she became overly anxious. Her breathing became faster as her heartbeat harder. Who wouldn’t, no parent would want to see a beaten, injured boy in their daughter’s room… it’s not a good look.   
Right when her mother peered into her room, her mother called, “LIZ?!”   
Her worst fears popped into her head, right when she called for her. “Mama, it’s not what it looks like,” Liz anxiously reasoned as she darted to her room.   
“Oh I believe it’s exactly what it looks like… why is your window open? That’s why you felt sick, you know it’s getting chiller this week,” Her mother closed her window.   
Liz immediately caught her breath, and was relieved for a sec until she realized didn’t find Peter either.   
“Sorry, I just thought I needed fresh air”  
“Elizabeth, why’s there a trail of blood on the floor?”  
“Uh-I uh… had a nose bleed, yeah, I had a nose bleed last night…”  
“Really? You know you should drink a lot of water to prevent that”  
“I know, I know mama…”  
“Probably that’s why you felt sick Mamacita, open windows and no water is not good for you…”   
“I know, I have to be hydrated”  
“Exactly. Anyways, finish putting away the groceries, while I’ll install your shower curtain.”  
Liz nodded and headed to the bagged up groceries. ‘Where the heck did Petey go?’  
Actually, Peter was barely hanging on by a thread, outside. He crawled down the brick wall and darted around, making sure nobody saw. Then he limped out of the alley and dreadfully headed home.   
Once Liz finished putting away all the groceries in the pantry, her mama finished installing her shower curtains. “Lizzy, be careful with the shower curtain this time!”  
“Alright…”  
“Can you hand me the remote Mamacita?” Liz nodded and handed her the living room tv remote.   
Her mother immediately browsed around the TV guide, until she settled on the News.   
“Wilson Fisk claimed that Spider-Man attacked him at his office, now there’s a city-wide manhunt for the Wall Crawling vigilante,” the reporter stated. 

“Wow, you hear about this?”  
“Uh-no, I-I haven’t heard this...”  
“This doesn’t seem like him, I remember your friends told me that ‘Spider-Man saved you at Coney Island’ and that you were ecstatic… and I was grateful for him,” her mother acknowledged.   
“Yeah…”  
“I feel bad for this kid”  
“Uh-Why?”  
“Because Lizzy, everyone’s going through something… everyone is fighting their own battles, somehow and some way. I remember going around the restaurant, and I’d see all these guys, waiting around for the check, because their date stood him up. Everyone has their bad days… and sometimes they just need a hug. Even Spider-Man.”  
“When did you get so psychological or philosophical, Mama?”  
“Very funny, I read it on one of those daily quote apps, it helps me get through the day especially on a bad day. Plus that must be a lot on someone's shoulders… plus Spider-Man seems young, so it might feel like it’s the end of the world for him”  
Liz stood there blankly. She understood her mother’s insight on the vigilante. Although she didn’t think that her mother would love to know that she knew Spider-Man.

Realization - Parker Residence

An anxious Peter slowly knocked on the front door. His body was shaking because of how anxious and cold he was… He had an idea that his Aunt would be heavily pissed. But who wouldn't, he nearly gave her a heart attack.   
Immediately, the door opened to see a flustered and stressed Aunt May. She was in disbelief when she saw him at the front door. His aunt walked away from the door, pacing around the living room.   
“I-I am sorry-”  
“You know, I-I called your school, God-Knows how many times… they didn’t know where you were. I called your friends, they had no idea where you were. Gwen didn’t know where you went, Mary Jane had no clue… but Harry said you went to Liz’s house-”  
“I had to do a project for Hist-”  
“ZIP IT! You should’ve called first, at least send me a text… neither way, I called Elizabeth’s mother, but Elizabeth told her she had no clue where you’ve gone… so please Dear tell me where you go… please!”  
Peter could hear the pain in her voice, but he couldn’t even speak another word. He couldn’t gather up the courage to tell her, so he remained silent, like a child in kindergarten when they’re told to go in the corner.   
His Aunt was in absolute disbelief, “Peter, you must tell me what’s going on with you! I keep getting calls that you’ve DITCHED CLASS, that your grades are at rock bottom. That’s unlike you, Peter… all of this is unlike you, so you have to tell me… what’s going on with you.”  
“Aunt May, please… just go to sleep,” Peter urged her.  
“You know what Peter Benjamin Parker, I can’t go to sleep, I CAN’T because I don’t know where my nephew sneaks off to at night… You know I haven’t gotten any sleep for God-knows how long, and Anna keeps telling me you’ll turn up, today… and some part of me believed that wouldn’t happen. In fact, I thought I would have the police arrive here and tell me where your body’s been found…” His aunt admitted.  
“But I’m fine… Aunt May,” Peter’s voice strained as he pleaded.  
“PETER, if you’re not going to be honest with me, just go to your room… NOW!” Aunt May’s voice strained through her tears that streamed down her face.   
He immediately turned away and tied his best to run up the stairs with his limp.   
As he headed up his room, he could hear his Aunt May’s quiet sniffles. Although he didn’t turn to see her tears, he felt her pain.   
Peter quietly shut his door and frustratingly threw his bag on his bed. ‘I never asked for these powers… I never asked to be yelled at! I NEVER ASKED TO BE HATED BY EVERYONE!’ He yelled at himself. Then he threw his back against the wall and slowly sat against the wall.  
His eyes closed and asked himself, “Who am I, Peter Parker or Spider-Man?!” Immediately he saw his room disappear and all of his stuff turned into ash. Everything became grey and grim. But all he held onto was his damaged red and blue Spider-suit. Although he wasn’t alone, because he saw a familiar figure approach him.   
“I missed you kiddo!” The mysterious figure called out to him. That voice was extremely familiar to him, a voice that he couldn’t forget.   
“Uncle Ben!” Peter sped towards his uncle and held onto him as long as he could.   
“Man, I missed those hugs”  
“I missed you, Uncle Ben… things haven’t been great without you!” He expressed this to his uncle.   
“About that, I know you’re going through a rough patch right now, but you’re given a gift and you should use that gift to help others…”  
“B-BUT LOOK WHERE IT LED TO, UNCLE BEN! Aunt May thinks I’m irresponsible and I nearly gave her a HEART ATTACK, Gwen and Mary Jane believe I’m unreliable and my friend since 2nd grade thinks I’m scum for not telling him who Spider-Man is! And right now I can barely walk!” Peter frustratingly admitted.  
“Kiddo, you have to calm down-” His uncle placed his hand on Peter’s shoulder.   
“D-don’t tell me to calm down… look what I’ve caused, I created all these monsters that are tearing New York apart, and I can’t do anything about it,” Peter expressed.   
“Of course you could do something about it, Kiddo… Everybody’s got a choice, so what’re you going to do about it?”  
“Uncle Ben, I’m not the man you think I am… I wanna live my own life, I wanna go to homecoming and prom without having to worry about this… I wanna go on field trips without having to worry about packing my suit… my mind can’t keep taking this anymore!”  
“What are you saying, kiddo?”  
“Maybe Fisk’s right, I’m not the hero of this fairytale story. I’m not the hero for this city, not anymore, and I’m done acting like it… ” Peter turned away from his Uncle. He looked down at his torn suit and tossed it aside into the dark. Then he turned to face his uncle and stared at him in the eyes.   
“Uncle Ben, Spider-Man isn’t going to be a part of my life anymore. I am Spider-Man… No More…” Peter admitted with tears in his eyes.

To Be Continued…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To address the comments from chapter 3 as of 12/17/20  
> Fanfiction.com:  
> Gino: so there's still some hope that they will end up together? guess i'll sticking around after all…  
> Thanks, please stick around this story, hopefully, you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read so far -TheTypingAvocado  
> OBSERVER01 nli: Nice chapter. Keep up the good work.  
> -Thanks for the constant support - TheTypingAvocado  
> Bigou: Oh, don't worry, I'm sure there is plenty of peoples who want Liz Allan and Peter to be together. Not me, since knowing the comics for longer than the show that inspired this fic, I'm more of a Gwen/Peter fan, to finally see a world where they have their happy ending. (I'm also a fan of MJ/Peter, but that wouldn't work so well with their "Spectacular" version.)  
> It’s not that I don’t like Gwen, she’s a great character… and it seemed that show built up to that relationship. I just feel that “Peter & Gwen’s” relationship has been overplayed. Personally, I believe that Liz is an extremely overlooked character that doesn’t get the credit she deserves. - TheTypingAvocado  
> Nightspirit152: Oh this story is juicier than freshly cooked steak. Keep up the awesome work you fantastic person.  
> Awe thank you, you just made my day! - TheTypingAvocado  
> Nuna: continue please! and peter and liz stay together!  
> Well, you have to stay tuned to find out! Wink, wink- TheTypingAvocado  
> The Champions: Great chapter please update  
> Thank you, I will! - TheTypingAvocado  
> Archive of Our Own:  
> Pumf: Thanks for the amazing story so far! It’s really in line with a Spider-Man story and I think you’re doing a great job. L  
> -Aw thanks!  
> Angel: Your story is too great and I love how you are handling the characters and references to other Spiderman media, but above all I agree with you about the treatment they gave Liz in the series was somewhat unfair, and personally I preferred to see to Peter with Liz since the relationship that was built was too good, I look forward to the next chapter and it continues like this.  
> -Thank you for the compliment! Liz is such an underrated character in the Spectacular fandom… either way I want to shine on her character, and I hope you enjoy the direction I’m taking her in. 
> 
> Message from the Author, TheTypingAvocado:  
> If you’ve watched Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, you’ll know the character of Ursula or known as Mr. Ditkovich’s daughter. Either way, I plan to take Liz’s character in the same direction as Ursula, because I feel like they're both underrated in their respective shows. You’ll see the homages to Spider-Man 2 in the next chapter, so obviously tell that this story is based upon the Raimi Films. That’s what I believe some of Spectacular Spider-Man is loosely based on, so it works. Also, Uncle Ben is going to play a major role in this story, as all Peter Parker stories should. On a side note: is it just me, or is teen drama in Peter’s life more interesting than Spider-man’s life.  
> Also my apologies for the stagnant upload of the chapters, I’ve just been busy with school. Although I do plan to have 10 chapters, so keep a lookout and stay tuned for those future chapters. Feel free to leave constructive criticism on this chapter and future chapters, it helps. :) I hope these fanfiction chapters brighten your day! 
> 
> Next Chapter: Chapter 5 Experimental Psychology


	6. Experimental Psychology (Chapter 5)

Experimental Psychology  
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Spectacular Characters or Marvel Characters.

Arachnophobia - Parker’s Residence Queens, New York

The loud alarm pierced through his skull and inevitably his dreams, as he sprung out of bed. ‘UGH CRAP!’ The tired Peter immediately turned off the blasting alarm and rose from his bed. He sneaked into the shower with his cloth towel in hand. However, his shower was promptly set to FREEZING COLD because the geek researched that Cold Showers are beneficial. Although, of course, after a morning sprinkle, it led to a shivering Peter, restlessly looking for anything that could give him warmth.  
Once Peter got changed into his usual outfit, he softly ran down the stairs. On the side of his eye caught his Aunt sleeping on the living room couch, snoring the blues away. Right next to her, he saw a half-empty tissue box. Not so far from her, a small trash bin filled with used tissues. He felt terrible to see her like this. Her nephew caused this stress on her, which kept her up at night.  
Then he noticed the note on the coffee table written for him. He tried his best to quickly pick it up and read, “Peter, I know you’re growing up and I’m proud that you’re maturing into the man that your uncle was. And I love that about you, dear. But a year ago, I lost your uncle, out on those streets… Now I don’t want to lose you to the same thing that took him away.  
You’re ambitious and will do anything to do good, especially help your poor aunt. But you have to be honest with me because you’ve been so mysterious lately, Dear.  
But I love you, Peter, and I always will.  
However, keep in mind, you’re grounded for life. You gotta be home by 7:00 pm.  
Love - Aunt May”  
Peter gently set it down on the counter and grabbed his lunch. Before he left out that door, he gave Aunt May a goodbye kiss on her cheek. Then he grabbed the trash from inside and threw it outside as he darted out the door.  
Right when Peter got out the front door, he plugged his crappy, crummy earphones into his phone. He searched through his phone and found his music. But he hardly had any music in his playlist, only 6 songs. Raindrops keep falling on my head by B. J. Thomas, We didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel, Basket Case by Green Day, Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day, Big Shot By Billy Joel. Peter loved all of his songs in his tiny playlist, especially We didn’t Start the Fire, Uncle Ben’s favorite. But the one song that resonated with the young Peter was Hold On by Jet. He didn’t know why it did, but it felt like the song spoke to him. His finger would then press play on that song first whenever he would get the chance. Back then, Peter never had time to listen while swinging, because he’d have to be alert, just in case he ever ran into a poll or something. ‘Odd, right? Sure, he had his spider sense, but multitasking is hard for everyone’  
Peter’s playlist playing: Hold On by Jet  
You tried so hard to be someone  
Did you forget who you are  
You tried to fill some emptiness  
'Til all you had spilled over  
Now everything's so far away  
That you don't know where you are  
You are  
All that you wanted  
And that you have done  
Says so much  
For you to hold on to  
For you to hold on to  
You belong too  
When it's to be yourself,  
It's not to be someone else  
Still, everything's so far away  
That you forgot where you are  
You are  
Well, all that you wanted  
And that you have done  
Says so much  
For you to hold on to  
For you to hold on to  
Hold on, hold on,  
Hold on, hold on,  
Hold on, hold on,  
Hold on, hold on,  
And all that you wanted  
And that you have done  
Says so much  
For you to hold on to  
For you to hold on to  
For you to hold on to  
For you, you belong to  
Once his favorite song reached its end, he’d reached his desired destination, a garbage bin. Peter ran into the dark hallway and made sure there’s nobody there. There wasn’t anybody there. He rapidly searched through his bag and found his torn red and blue suit. He looked at his suit for one last time before he did what he thought was right. Then Peter opened a large garbage container, which was filled with smelly garbage, and God-knows-what else, and threw his suit in. He threw the Spider-Man suit in the trash like it was his most precious item. He threw it away discreetly. Only the rats could see. Right there and then, it felt like the weight of the world was lifted off his shoulders. A weight that he had for about a year is finally off his shoulder.  
Moments after Peter fled from the alley, young teens cut through the alley as their shortcut. They’re headed to the same place Peter was going to, Midtown Manhattan Magnet. Until the young teenager stopped and threw away his snack in the garbage. He thought little about it until he noticed something odd in the garbage.  
His friend noticed that he’d stopped and oddly held the garbage lid up, looking at the garbage. “C’mon Miles, we gotta go!”  
“Ganke, hold up… look!” Miles motioned his friend to come to him. Then he pointed at the shredded red and blue costume in the trash.  
“What the- why’s Spidey’s costume in the trash?”  
“Beats me, AH, it’s covered with trash!”  
“And smells like burnt spandex… You know, if we bring it to the Daily Bugle, we’d probably get good money for this”  
“Don’t know, Ganke, the Daily Bugle’s going to-” Miles sounded hesitant.  
“LOVE THIS!… they’ve hated Spider-Man for the longest time, they’ve massacred him on the streets. So we’d probably get a cool hundred bucks,” Ganke mentioned. Then he noticed his friend’s disappointed expression on his face. Ganke knew Miles loved the wall-crawling vigilante, but he also knew that they could benefit from this. But it looked like Miles was reluctant to give in to the idea.  
“Miles, I know that you love Spider-Man and-” Then his eyes darted down on his watch. “Oh shoot! It’s 7:10! Put it in your bag and we’ll figure it after school,” Ganke urged.  
“Alright,” Miles hurriedly shoved the raggedy suit in his backpack and chased down his friend.

Midtown Manhattan Magnet High

For the first time in a week, Peter didn't have to run to school. He finally found time to take the bus and arrive that way. Right as Peter arrived at school, he noticed a crowd of students surrounding the entrance.  
‘What’s happening over there? Was there a fight?’ Peter knew the tendency for students his age to be oddly attracted to school fights, although he found it weird.  
Not that at all. It was Homecoming season, and proposals are flying left and right. And right now, his best friend, Harry Osborn, held out his proposal, in front of everyone, and Gwen Stacy.  
“Uh- Gwendolyne Stacy, will you be my date to the dance,” Harry held his neat, large homecoming poster out in front of her.  
However, Gwen didn't know what to say. She was speechless. Her eyes darted back and forth between Mary Jane and Harry. She didn't know whether to take the redhead’s advice and reject Harry in front of the entire student body. But she didn't want to leave Harry alone. To where he falls back into his former, destructive state.  
That's what she feared. Feared so much that she gave a subtle nod to his proposal and gave him a stale embrace. Sadly, it felt more like an obligation than genuine love and desire.  
Some students clapped and cheered for the couple, even the yearbook students took pictures of the unfolding event.  
But Peter kept his head low and casually walked past them and entered the school. But he wouldn’t get so far without interruption, because Principal Davis pulled him into his office.  
“Mr. Parker, I need to speak to you, in my office”  
“Yeah, of course”  
Peter nervously gulped as he entered the office, noticing all the school’s memorabilia and accomplishments. But his eyes immediately noticed the large stack of small Detention slips on the top of his desk, which frightened him. He’d never got in trouble in school; they saw him as this bookworm, who followed the rules. But senior year completely flipped on his head and he’d finally receive his first detention.  
“Mr. Parker, I know you’re a good kid, and usually unproblematic. But you’ve been distracted lately and been tardy. So unfortunately, because of school rules, you got after school detention today.”  
‘Ugh, this reeks! Now I gotta tell Aunt May I got detention!’  
“Mr. Davis, can I text my aunt that I’ll be staying after school-”  
“No need, I’ve already notified your Aunt, and she said that she expects you home by 7. That sounds like a tight curfew, son”  
“Yeah… I kinda screwed up, and I know I’m grounded”  
“That’s a shame, you’re a great kid… you probably need to focus and take some responsibility”  
“I know… um-can I go now?” the senior asked.  
“Yes, Mr. Parker, just don’t forget to take your slip and close the door on the way out. See you after school.”  
Right as Peter exited the office, he noticed some girl walking towards his way. The sun was immensely bright, so he couldn’t make out who it was. It was all a blur. Until he noticed the familiar light green cheerleader uniform and the sleek brown hair. Then it immediately clicked, it’s Liz Allan.  
“Hey, Petey,” she softly called him.  
He barely gave a small wave to her. To say he feared a teenage cheerleader was an understatement. He knows she could expose him and tell the entire school about it. So his heart pumped faster than the speed of light. The pressure was on.  
“Liz, I know you might be pissed at me right now, and-” Peter speedily babbled, running out of breath.  
But something extremely odd interrupted him. She stopped listening and came in close and gave him a warm, tight hug. Liz Allan, his ex, the girl who despised him for the entire summer and part of the school year, now held him in a hug. Of course, he hugged her back, but awkwardly.  
“What was that for?” Peter asked once he pulled away from her embrace.  
“Everybody needs a hug, Petey, even you!” she gleefully smiled at him.  
“T-thanks, Liz. Although I’ve treated you awfully… but I want us to be friends''  
“I’d like that a lot, but the only way that could happen is your honesty with me… please” Liz urged.  
“Please promise me you won’t-”  
“I promise… I won’t Petey. My lips are sealed”  
“Cool, I promise Liz that I’ll… try my best to be honest with you.”‘Peter, y’know don’t make promises you can’t keep,’ he reminded himself.  
“You can start with that detention slip in your hand,” she motioned to his slip.  
“Oh-uh that’s for my after school detention, I got it cause I was late… a lot this semester”  
“Really? Of all the people, you?”  
“Are you surprised? I thought you knew I was a man of many surprises”  
“Got me there, Petey,” she chuckled with him.  
“How’d you know it was a detention slip? You got detention?”  
“No… Flash used to get a lot of those, but the football coach would bail him out if it was during football practice”  
“Coach doesn’t like their star players dropping practice. I would know, I was a star football player,” he grinned as he joked.  
“Yeah, in tryouts! By the way, you really dropped the ball” she winked at him, while they laughed.  
“Well… you know, I was holding back.”  
“Sure… what you should’ve been holding was that football, maybe you could’ve made the team,” she humorously jabbed at him.  
“Ouch Liz, you really are gonna go there”  
“I’ll never let you off the hook for that!” she giggled and softly placed her hand on his arm.  
Then the bell rang, breaking their conversation.  
“So Petey… are we still going to meet with Mr. Murdock later?”  
“Yeah, but can you wait for me, I got detention, duh”  
“Hopefully cheer practice’s done by that time… I’ll meet you there by the room, I know where it is''  
“Cool, see you in the second”  
“See you later, Petey,” she subtly waved at him.  
Peter walked away from her, not expecting that confrontation to go the way it did. ‘That’s not how I pictured that going… oh shoot! I forgot to put my bag in my locker. Crap!’

As the day passed by, lunch had arrived. I know right, school days go by quickly.  
The days went by as fast as Hobie ran after Mary Jane. The running back was anxious when he approached the red-haired beauty, Mary Jane Watson. The young Hobie has been chasing Mary Jane Watson ever since he got a dance with her last winter. He didn’t know what stood out about her, instead of her drop-dead gorgeous looks, but it kept him attracted to her. Since then, he's been drooling over her till now. This was his chance.  
“Uh- Mary Jane,” he tapped her shoulder.  
“Hey there, Hobie! Where’ve you been lately?”  
“I’ve been occupied…”  
“With?”  
“Oh uh- work, yeah, work,” he nervously stammered.  
“That’s nice,” the red-head smiled.  
“Uh- Mary Jane, I was wondering if you’d be my date to Homecoming?” The nervous Hobie asked.  
“Wow, I’m surprised you didn’t have this large poster or a bouquet of lovely flowers right in front of me”  
“Nah, I’m a simple guy,” he tried his best to sound confident.  
“That’s fair, I find that stuff cliche. Sure Hobie, I’ll go with you to the Dance”  
“Great!”  
Then Mary Jane’s friend, Glory Grant, runs up to her and Hobie. “Uh-Hobie, did you hear what happened to your brother?”  
“You have a brother that goes here?” MJ asked.  
“Yeah, he’s a Freshman… Glory, what happened to him?”  
“Come with me!”  
They followed Glory to the lockers to see Flash stand over his brother, Miles.  
“HEY FRESHMAN! WHERE’D THE HECK YOU GET THIS?!” Flash Thompson yelled to the top of his lungs, interrogating the boy.  
‘Oh goodness, what did Miles do?’ Hobie facepalmed.  
“Flash… what’re you doing?”  
“Your freshman brother’s about to spread false information”  
“What false information?”  
“THIS!” He tossed over what was in the bag which’s the shredded spider-man suit.  
"Is that Spider-Man's suit?" Glory’s eyebrows raised at the sight of it.  
"it smells burnt," Glory mentioned.  
"Where the HECK did you get this, Miles? Y’know Dad wouldn't like this," Hobie mentioned.  
"We just- I found this in the garbage. No big deal," Miles nervously reasoned.  
"NO BIG DEAL?! YOU’RE GONNA GIVE THE BUGLE MORE FALSE INFORMATION!" the star quarterback lashed out at the freshmen.  
"Flash, relax… what were you all going to do with it?" MJ asked the boys.  
"We were uh- going to give it to the Bugle for some money," Ganke answered.  
"Why would Spider-Man throw away his suit, anyway?" Glory curiously asked.  
"It's FAKE! You could buy that from a store"  
"Flash, cut it out… Glory, you don't know what this means?"  
"MJ what?"  
"Glory, when you trash something, it means you've outgrown it, and quit trying to make it work," MJ pointed out.  
"You're saying-"  
"I'm saying, probably Spider-Man… quit"  
"NO, SPIDEY WOULD NEVER QUIT! HE WOULD NEVER!" If it wasn’t obvious, Flash was an absolute fanboy of the Wall Crawling vigilante. He’d never believe or stand any negative propaganda about his favorite hero. But that would cost him when Principal Davis approached him.  
"Mr. Flash Thompson, my office, now!" The Principal demanded. Security took the hotheaded football star away like a toddler throwing a tantrum in the corner.  
"C'mon Miles! Let's go!"  
Then the two freshman boys jumped and ran past Hobie and the girls and headed to the cafeteria.  
"But what if he did?" The red-head questioned.  
"Then there's nothing we could do about it, MJ"  
Lunchtime had arrived, and Peter had a bit of a spring in his step. Although getting after-school detention isn’t the best news, at least he wasn’t late to his classes and he and Liz seem to be cool with each other. He sat down at the same cafeteria table, with his best friend, Harry Osborn.  
"Hey Harry," Peter greeted him.  
"What happened to you, Pete! Jeez, I thought you died?" He mentioned through the chewing of his food.  
"Why’d’you say that?"  
"Y'know Gwen told me you went missing, or something like that. So I figure something was up… you alright?" Harry concernedly asked.  
"Well, obviously I'm good!"  
"That's good Peter, it's good to get a break once in a while… what did you need a break from?"  
"Oh y'know, I needed a break on my assignments, yeah… especially those missing assignments," he reasoned.  
"Oh okay, so you think you can hang out after school?"  
"Uh-not today, Har"  
"What is the busy Peter Parker doing today?"  
"I got after school detention…"  
"Whoa, wait, you? Peter Benjamin Parker… got after school detention?"  
"Yeah, it turns out that the school doesn't appreciate my tardiness and absences"  
"Figures, what about tomorrow?"  
"Uh-I can't… I gotta do the history project with Liz, actually all week"  
"Ooo, Liz" he teased as he jokingly punched his shoulder.  
"What?"  
"You remember when you wanted to be with a cheerleader, I know it was Sally but-"  
"I remember that was back at the beginning of junior year"  
"Either way, you got that dream by dating… Liz"  
“Har, what’re you saying?”  
“I’m saying, give her another shot, you two are meant for each other, like me and Gwen,” he suggested.  
“Pete, take her out for Hoco, man,” Harry added.  
‘That depends if Aunt May lets me go… even if I go, Gwen’s already going with Harry, MJ probably found herself a date, Sally hates my guts, and Liz- wait what would be wrong taking Liz? She’s gorgeous, caring and funny and-’  
“Pete, you zone out on me?” His friend brought his attention back.  
“Oh-uh sorry, you’re right Har…”  
“Aren’t I always?” he quipped, leading to Peter immediately rolling his eyes.  
Just then, two of Peter’s friends approached the table, MJ and Gwen. The blonde sat right next to Peter, while the redhead sat next to him.  
“Hey there, Tiger-”  
“Pete, you alright? Like your aunt told us you’ve gone missing?” Gwen sounded concerned. Who wouldn’t? Her friend, since middle school, had gone missing for no reason. Plus, that Peter’s been acting odd around her spiked her suspicions.  
“Gwen, I’m fine. I’m here, right?”  
“Well, what’s up with you? It’s not like you to miss school or be late to a class…” The blonde reasoned.  
“I thought I’d to do something, but turns out I didn’t, not anymore,” Peter quietly expressed  
“Well it’s good to have you back, Tiger” the redhead smiled at him and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Actually, did you hear what’s going on?” she added.  
“No, what is it?”  
“There’s saying that Spider-Man’s given up?”  
“WAIT REALLY!? He did?” Harry excitedly questioned.  
“Some freshmen found his suit in the garbage”  
His thoughts were screaming at him, ‘Wait, they found it already… that was barely this morning!’  
“Wow… I wouldn’t expect him to do that”  
“The Bugle probably won’t need you to shoot pictures of Spider-Man, huh Pete”  
“I guess”  
“Don’t worry, Pete, Oscorp could use an intern like you. Plus, we pay our interns well”  
“Thanks for the offer, buddy. But, I’ll pass… I probably need to focus on school, anyway”  
“You sure, buddy? We got a position open and we could use someone with your brain in Oscorp”  
“Yeah, I’m sure, and hey, I could get a job delivering pizzas,” Peter mentioned.  
“You serious, Pete? Pizza delivery man? Sounds kind of lame,” Harry chirped.  
“Eh- it’s something new to try out”  
“But Peter, what about the ESU internship?” Gwen asked.  
“Crap! I forgot- I’ve been busy working on the history project that I haven’t gone in days”  
“Pete, you know that’s a great opportunity for you… it’ll help you get into ESU next year”  
“I know… I may need a few days, I need to finish this project. My grade in history stinks like sewer water”  
“Fine, a few more days, plus they’re under construction for something… the lab’s a real mess”  
“What for?”  
“I don’t know, but a lot of the equipment was destroyed and there were holes in the walls. Dr. Warren must be experimenting with some crazy stuff,” the blonde concernedly mentioned. 

Later that afternoon, significant news came for the Daily Bugle, mostly for James Jonah Jameson, when the destroyed Spider-Man suit was delivered to their office. He despised the wall crawler, and to know that Spider-Man had given up, made him jollier than a schoolgirl. Weird, right? But that’s how much the chief of the Daily Bugle despised him.  
“According to the infamous newspaper company, The Daily Bugle, a sudden development has unfolded today, that the vigilante, Spider-Man, has given up. This is based on evidence of a trashed Spider-Man suit, that was found earlier today! This begs the question to all New Yorkers, Is Spider-Man, No More? We will keep you updated on this unraveling situation,” the news anchor reported.  
Daily Bugle Newspapers flew out of control, with the bold front-page headline, “SPIDER-MAN: NO MORE!” 

After School detention is such a waste of time. It wasn’t hell or heaven; it was just boring and useless. You sit there, bored out of your mind until it is up. No phones, no games, only boredom till death. You barely could talk with people.  
“I’ll be calling attendance for today’s after school detention… hmm okay, Flash Thompson?” the teacher announced.  
“Here,” Flash grumbled.  
“Peter Parker?”  
“Here…”  
Flash turned around to see Peter sitting behind him, “Parker, how’d’you get here?”  
“Oh, I had a lot of tardies, you?” he discreetly whispered.  
“I-uh yelled at a freshman…”  
“Not the worst thing you’ve done”  
“Well, Sha Shan’s pissed that I’m in detention… again, she wants me to be better”  
“That’s good… great. Um-so… what’d’you yell at the Freshman about?”  
“Well, this kid pissed me off when he said that Spidey gave up! Like Spidey would never do that! He was about to spread false info about the webhead… y’know the Bugle, always spewing bad stuff about my boy”  
Peter immediately felt chills go down his spine, “Oh him… I’ve heard about that”  
“The Bugle’s going to spew garbage about Spidey anyway… that’s how they make money. But you don’t honestly believe that crap, Parker? ”  
“Um- of course… not”  
“Good.”  
“But what’s your fascination with Spidey anyway,” Peter blurted out.  
“Well, Y’know chicks dig Spidey… ”  
“You sure? I think girls find the spandex bit goofy”  
“Parker, Trust me… girls like a guy in tight spandex”  
“Is that why you like Spider-Man?”  
“That’s not it, something about the guy… he’s inspiring, y'know what I mean?”  
“I kinda don’t know what you mean, Flash”  
“C’mon Parker! Y’know what I mean. Spider-Man… he’s just a dude, in a costume… who gets up no matter how hard he gets punched down. That’s inspiring!”  
“Oh…”  
“You don’t think so?”  
“I don’t know what to think… I only took the pictures, and I gotta say Spidey does more harm than good”  
“Well, nobody's perfect, not even Spidey… he’s just a dude”  
“Exactly”  
“But that's what so great about the dude! He’s not a god or a super-soldier… he’s a dude, like you Parker. But he inspires me to want to do good”  
“Wow,” he mouthed to himself. He never expected Flash to express himself about something else than sports. Sure, Flash and Peter were never close, even when they’re friends in nursery school, but it felt like this is the best it could be.  
“Yo Parker, if you ever tell anybody about what I told you-”  
“Flash, I promise I won’t.”  
“Good,” he nodded at him.  
Moments quickly passed in detention, and before you’d know it, it’s finished. It was a blink of an eye. Students darted out of the room and headed for the exit, while the last two students left were Peter and Flash. Peter noticed from the corner of his eye was a girl waiting for him. “See you around Flash”  
“You too, Parker,” he nodded at him with a small grin.  
Liz approached him, right as he exited the room, “What was that about?”  
“I don’t know, I guess, Flash Thompson opened up to me?! Weird,” Peter shivered.  
“Eh- stranger things have happened, like when I found out that his name is Eugene,” she humorously mentioned.  
“Well, I gave him the nickname, Flash in preschool… man, I can’t believe he flashed me when we ran onto the playground.”  
“Jeez, you’ve known him for that long?”  
“Yeah… although we took our separate paths, good thing I met Harry in second grade, or Elementary School would’ve been rough”  
“About Harry? Is all that stuff true… about his father?”  
“Norman Osborn? He was a lunatic”  
“They’re saying you… you know”  
Liz could tell that he’s bothered that by what happened to Norman Osborn. He was quiet and avoided looking her in the eye and telling her the truth. “Petey, please be honest with me-” she urged him.  
“Fine… I-I killed Norman Osborn, but a part of me regrets it. He was the absolute scum of the earth, an absolute monster, but he was the father of my best friend. Sure, the Green Goblin maybe gone, but Harry’s father was gone with him… and that’s the guilt I’ll live with.”  
“Jeez, now I get why Harry hates Spidey”  
“Yeah, and that’s why I needed a break from all of this madness. I used to think that was my destiny… but I’m just a kid in highschool… who needs to worry about school, my college applications, my Aunt and y’know… girls,” he smiled at her. “I don’t think I need the weight of the world on my shoulders”  
A small smirk grew on Liz’s face. Peter was honest with her and gave her insight into the mind of Spider-Man. That’s all she ever wanted from Peter, his honesty.  
“Are you ready to go into the Hell hole, known as Hell’s Kitchen?”  
“Hell’s Kitchen, here we come!” They looked at each other with a gleeful smile. 

Nelson & Murdock Law Firm

“Hi, Mr. Nelson and Ms. Page,” Peter delightfully greeted them when they entered.  
“uh-where’s Mr. Murdock?” Liz questioned.  
“Oh-Matt hasn’t come to the office today,” Karen informed the students.  
“Sometimes I think he fell in a manhole,” Foggy jokes. Karen slapped his shoulder, reminding him to not joke about that… probably because they think that’s a real possibility.  
“Slow day today?”  
“No, this is the usual foot traffic we get, we’re new to the city… so it’s expected”  
“Although, we wished it was better than this”  
“Don’t worry Karen, Matt would say, by the grace of God, hopefully, we’d get a big case,” he turned to her.  
‘Mr. Murdock’s religious?’ Then Franklin Nelson turned to the kids, “anyway, what do you kids need?”  
“Um, well, we’re here to review the interview questions for our video… if you’d like”  
“Of course, let’s work on the table”  
Right as they sat on the chair, the two noticed the Daily Bugle Newspaper, on the table. The big and bold headline said, ‘SPIDER-MAN: NO MORE?’  
"Oh, did y'all hear the news… one of New York’s vigilantes is out of the picture”  
“Well that’s new, but who’s the other vigilante?”  
“We got one here in Hell’s Kitchen, I’m dead serious. But he doesn’t have a fancy name like Spidey, but our clients called him our guardian Devil… which fits this neighborhood, actually,” Foggy hilariously mentioned.  
“But he isn’t Spider-Man, although the other guy is pretty badass… in his own way of course”  
“Karen, you know these vigilantes seem interesting, but they’re acting above the law… which essentially makes them criminals…”  
“Yeah, but don’t you think that this helps some people? Like sometimes, the law can’t help everyone”  
“But isn’t that what it was made to do? That’s why the law is important”  
“That’s it’s purpose, but some people are so powerful that they can bend the law into something wicked, twisted… that it benefits them”  
Immediately after Karen’s expression about the law, their door slowly opened. Everyone turned their heads to see the blind lawyer, Matthew Murdock, enter the room.  
“Hey Matt, where’ve you been? These kids have been- OH MY GOODNESS! Matt, you’re bleeding!”  
“Matt, were you mugged?!”  
The bleeding was around Matthew’s upper abdomen, and the blood seeped through his classic white dress shirt. It looked like he’d been mugged by people who hate blind people, or he’d been slashed by a blade. Either way, there were so many possibilities to how he received such a bloody injury.  
The Midtown students couldn’t believe their eyes with the injuries they witnessed. Liz noticed that his injuries were similar to Peter’s injuries when he needed patching up.  
“Matt, do you need to go to the hospital?” His friend offered.  
“No Foggy, no hospitals… please,” the blind man pleaded.  
“But you’d bleed out if you don’t,” Karen mentioned. She really thought that Matt had a huge injury.  
“I’m fine guys. I got stitched up earlier, the blood is probably from the residue”  
“But that’s a lot of blood just to be residue… what did you do”  
“Oh- I got clipped by a bike, my fault… I didn’t know where I was going,” Matt reasoned.  
“Well obviously you didn’t… you sure you don’t those guide dogs? They’re oftly cute,” Foggy recommended.  
“Guys, I'm fine, everything is fine… Anyway, it’s Peter and Liz right?”  
A few back hairs raised when he guessed correctly. It was like he knew they were there, even if he just got there a minute ago. But Matt was blind, he couldn’t have known, could he?  
“Wait, how’d you know?”  
“A magician never reveals his secrets,” Matt chuckled.  
“Cool! Well it would be Liz, Petey and our other partner, Hobie… but he’d gone to work!” Liz mentioned.  
“That’s alright, hopefully we’ll meet him later. What do y’all need help with?” the lawyer asked.  
“Um reviewing our interview questions, Mr. Murdock,” she answered.  
“Matt’s fine, Liz. Well, let’s get to work.”

Somewhere in New York

Well, there were many types of labor in the United States. It’s the land of opportunity!. But sometimes, not all opportunities are legal. Sometimes, there under the table deals for men, like the Kingpin. And he offered the young Hobie Brown to come be his pawn of execution. But Hobie didn’t believe in everything Fisk did for the city.  
The young man didn’t believe in his cutthroat ruthlessness.  
“We must take out any obstacles that may cause harm to our operation, Mr. Brown… and if that obstacle is the Man in Black, I’ll make sure that obstacle won’t destroy our operation,” Fisk emphasized.  
“Can’t you get someone else to do this? Like Gargan or the Shocker,” Hobie asked. He didn’t want to lose his chance to get a date with the beautiful Mary Jane Watson. He knew had this new responsibility to fulfill, but he thought he could put that off for one night. But Fisk had other plans.  
“Mr. Brown, you have many talents, and I’d hate for those talents to go to waste”  
“FISK! I have a life of my own, and I’d like to keep it that way! My life doesn’t stop because you tell me to.”  
His pawn’s outburst stunned the Kingpin. No one ever raised his voice at him, except for his father. And he never had the best relationship with him, obviously.  
“I’m trying to build something here, Mr. Brown. And I’d like for you to be in the front row of that change in New York”  
“This change in New York is covered with blood… that’s the change that you want?”  
“If it had to get to that point… this city would get better through that sacrifice”  
“Well, I will not be a part of it!” Hobie exclaimed once he stormed out.  
James Wesley noticed the outburst from the high school senior, so he went to check on Wilson.  
“What happened, sir?” he questioned as he entered.  
“Mr. Brown doesn’t want to take the bullet. He doesn’t align himself with our operation, no longer… We cannot have these disturbances in our operation!”  
“What are you saying, sir”  
“He can exploit this vision. My vision. That’s a great danger to us, to me!”  
“What option shall we propose?”  
“We take that disturbance out of the equation… tell me, Wesley, are any of our allies available”  
“Only Mr. Brice and Ms. Hardy are available-”  
“Good, please inform Mr. Brice and Ms. Hardy that I need them to handle this intrusion, as soon as possible”  
“I’ll inform Mr. Brice and Ms. Hardy, right now,” his assistant replied. He immediately went on his phone to fulfill Mr. Fisk’s request.  
“Thank you, Wesley” he nodded and deviously grinned to himself. 

To Be Continued… 

To address the comments from previous chapters as of 1/17/20  
Fanfiction.com  
Spidey-Boy21: This is awesome. Just wanted a clarification but who is the man in black? Is that supposed to be daredevil or Hobie Brown or something?  
Thank you! Also to clarify, the man in black is Matt Murdock or Daredevil. -TheTypingAvocado  
The Codister: Somehow I got the feeling Aunt May is gonna find out sooner or later in the story, and I don't mind if Liz gets back together with Peter, it really is an underrated relationship in comics and tv.  
Facts! Well, we’ll see about Aunt May… but Liz was one of my favorite characters from the series, so I wanted to make her shine. -TheTypingAvocado  
Avenger2003: Interesting continuation of the spectacular spider-man. I like all the Daredevil aspects in this fic too. Please continue.  
Thank you, I love the character of Daredevil, especially the Netflix version, so I decided to take inspiration from that adaptation. Thank you for the continued.-TheTypingAvocado  
OBSERVER01 nli: Nice chapter. Keep up the good work.  
Thank you for your continued support -TheTypingAvocado  
honey foxx: any chance that you'll ever write a lemon with peter and liz?  
I have no interest in making a lemon for Peter and Liz, plus, I believe it would ruin the flow of the story. -TheTypingAvocado  
Bumblechild: I will confess, this is one of few continuation fics that has grown on me. I'm hooked. I'll stick around for a looong, loong time. You're really a good writer, and I'm interested to see how this story unravels. Heck, I might even get obsessed enough to draw fanart... of a fanfiction.  
Aside of this, I'd say the only thing you would have to work on is pacing. Put a bit more emphasis on describing characters as they first appear, and just drop a few hints to what the other characters think of them. It would help clear up things that seem just a little rushed, like a bunch of random strangers walking up to a few students. Were they listening in on the conversation? Sharp ears? Does this surprise them? Or were they talking a bit too loud and everyone heard?  
Other than that, good gosh I'm hooked. Like... really hooked.  
I'll hop on and drop a huge comment or review whenever you update this, you can bet on that.  
Cheers! Bee.  
Oh my goodness, thank you for all the love and feedback on this fic, especially the feedback. Feedback is what helps me become a better writer. I appreciate this! And hey, always feel free to drop any fan-art for this fic, anything would be greatly appreciated. If you want to drop any fan-art, add my discord: TheTypingAvocado#3942  
-TheTypingAvocado  
Bumblechild: Aw man...aw man. Aw man. Can I agree with you that Liz AND Ursula are insanely underlooked characters. And I adore the Raimi movies to pieces. I'd stay my ground with you that yeah, the show played up their (Pete and Gwen) relationship a lot, but then again, it's also because of that that I got my heart invested into it. It would be a huge treat to see Gwen and Peter end up together for once, even if it's in a fanfic. I'm a bit too emotionally invested into it to be able to let it go.  
But I am tempted to see where you take the Liz-Peter relationship. I love the way you write it. Her mom seems a bit gullible I will say that. But I'm also interested to see what kind of a person she is. Liz mentioned this isn't her first rodeo, so she may have used the nosebleed trick a few times in the past. Either her mom knows... or Liz falls 'sick with the 'same illness' quick often and her mom is a Karen who insists her daughter is no liar... and is sick when she says so, even when the doctor says no. An interesting character. Will Liz question Peter about the *ahem* Norman situation, or piece things together herself? Will you give her more personality in this fic? Will you include more characters unseen in the show? Writing is a tool that can go in places animation cannot, and you have the privilege of time and *lack of copyright infrigements to fear* haha.  
Will Gwen change and develop from this? Become more brave, honest, daring and unafraid to tell the truth even if it's not what Harry wants to hear? Will Peter stick around and wait for her...or will he date Liz briefly again like in the show, only for it to not work out? Or will it work out?  
Or will Liz be the one to stop him and tell him no before it even starts?  
What do the villains think of Spiderman? A teenager, a 'kid playing hero'. They seem to know his age... young, but not care. Why? Perhaps they think he's really and truly got a curfew, and is nothing more than a science experiment. Or they don't see him as human at all. Our Man in Black seems to think there's someone 'above' him, or 'bigger'... unless I misread. I do tend to skip lines when I read sometimes, attention deficit disorder...ugh. Perhaps they think he's working for someone...maybe the government, so they don't care how much they injure him since he's 'clearly going to get top treatment' when he crawls back to his masters. Or maybe I'm just thinking too far ahead and reading too much into the little things. Idiot me.  
I have so many scenarios running through my brain with this fic, it's unbelievable.  
Amazing chapter, and don't stop writing! You got this! Once again, I'll reiterate- I am hooked. So bad.  
Cheers! bee.  
Thank you for your analysis! I appreciate everything you’ve put into this review. I appreciate the criticism and honesty; it helps me write better stories. As for Liz, I plan to explore her character in future chapters. I dig that you're enjoying this a lot and that there are so many scenarios that are coming. I hope you enjoy the future chapters and let’s keep in touch.  
Archive of Our Own  
GREGODMAN: Amazing work so far  
Thank You, Much love! - TheTypingAvocado

ChicktyChinaTheChineseChicken: Loving this fic so far! Not to rush you or anything, but do you know how long will it take until the next chapter? Looking forward to it!  
Love the user name, very fancy! Well by the time you’ll see this, it’s been a month… so basically it takes a month to write a chapter, I know, it’s a bit long… I get distracted very easily. But I hope you enjoy the newer chapters - TheTypingAvocado

Libra-no-ninja9: I love this fanfic. It's such a pity that the Spectacular Spider-man serie never had a continuation, and this fanfic really feels like what it should be, I also love that at least one person from Peter's Parker circle knows that he is Spider-man, poor Ptey really needs some support and a lot of hugs T^T. Also big thumb for Liz's mother who guessed that spidey was still a very young man.  
I wonder if the whole city of New York would be so prompt to hate Spider-Man if they knew he was just a kid trying his best to help under his spandex costume.  
Spider-man no more, Can't fault Peter for that, that poor kid really needs a good break from all of this madness. I also wonder what George Stacy would feel if that the young man his police forces had been ordered to kill is his daugter's classmate's. Reminds me of a serie comic of spider-man "Spider-man Marvel adventures" where the good Captain discovered who spidey was and could easilly become very worried for Peter.  
Poor Peter is also feeling so much guilt T^T The nightmare he had about Harry seeking vengeance on him really hit me gard because of the whole "Harry is a villain again" in the current ASM comics, when I'd rather prefer little Harry when he's an ally. And the worst ? That bastard Norman Osborn is freaking alive and nobody knows yet, New York and Harry are blaming Spidey for the death of someone who isn't even really dead (almost makes me want to see their reaction if Spidey were to be killed and unmasked on live TV, and if the Green Goblin or Norman Osborn then made his come back soon after, now that's something that would really make all those dumb new york people stupid and devastated, knowing that their hatred and inappropriate grudge for a masked vigilante led to the death of a kid who was innocent of the crime he was accused of)  
I hate Fisk when he is such a despicable trash human being, so I love to remind myself of his beating in Spider-man back in black when he's like this. Guess Daredevil will have a lot of work to do, also he's supposed to be able to differenciate and recognize people by hearing their heartbeat, that's how he canonically discovered that Peter was spider-man  
Awe thank you for this long response, I love these types of comments. It shows that you love this type of story. -TheTypingAvocado

Next Chapter: Chapter 6 Euphoria

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Message from the Author, TheTypingAvocado:  
> I know y'all may wonder what happened to those cold takes about those characters, and in total honesty, I felt like they didn’t flow with the story well, especially with the start of chapter 4. This chapter has many homages to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, especially the soundtrack.  
> Now for the chapter itself, Flash telling Peter how he feels about Spider-Man shows what Spider-Man means to people like Flash, he’s an inspiration, a symbol of doing the right thing. And Liz and Peter have been building their relationship back, so I hope you’d enjoy that… and Fisk is doing whatever it takes to fulfill his vision of New York… and that’s practically it!  
> PS: leave constructive criticism on this chapter and future chapters, it helps. :)


	7. Euphoria (Chapter 6)

Euphoria (Chapter 6)  
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Spectacular Characters or Marvel Characters.

Highs

‘Tell me something better than free time. Go ahead, try!’  
Lately, according to Peter’s standards, life has been superb for the high school senior. ‘Crazy, I know! His life’s been crap this whole time, what changed?’   
His grades have risen to expected heights. His relationships at school have gotten better, even with his ex, Liz Allan.   
Although keep in mind, it still isn’t perfect, but he’s riding the highs of life. The key thing that hasn’t gone well for Peter was his relationship with Aunt May. Was she giving him the silent treatment or ignoring him? Well, who wouldn’t give him it? He keeps sneaking out without an honest explanation, that’s really suspicious for anyone. Neither way, it felt like he hadn’t spoken to her in months, even though it’s only been a few days.   
All she would do is put his breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the dining table. And one day, she left nothing for him to eat, because she slept in her room, so he relied upon Harry’s leftovers for his meal, which would be a salad that he didn’t want.  
But it had its benefits. Peter finally may have time for himself. It may sound selfish, and trust me it was, but it felt nice. Of course, what he’d do with that time is study, cause that’s who he is. And once he finished studying, he’d do research on the latest scientific innovations. Recently, he found that down in Malibu, California, Stark Industries was experimenting with arc reactor technology, to create efficient energy. Although Peter wasn’t the biggest fan of the weapons dealing company, he believed arc reactor tech could be the innovation of the future. ‘Such a geek!’   
Obviously, he’s taking advantage of it and he’s enjoying every second of his extra time. Especially because of the lighter load on his shoulders, with no job at the Bugle… man, J. Jonah Jameson really conflicted right about now.   
And since he had so much spare time till his 7 pm curfew, he hung out with his friends, mostly with Harry, Gwen, and Mary Jane Watson.   
He had so much time to himself that he believed he could go to this year’s Homecoming if his Aunt could start talking to him. In the ideal situation, if he’d ever want to get a date for Homecoming, it would be his gorgeous friend, Gwen Stacy. But Harry already is taking her to the dance. Then there’s the gorgeous red-headed Mary Jane Watson. Boy, she was a beauty, and Peter and she had quite the connection. But he knew she didn’t want to be with anyone, so that wouldn’t work out, even if the geek really wanted it.   
But there were many other lovely ladies to take to the Homecoming Dance. Even though few were very interested in him.   
But the one young lady that stuck out was the beautiful Latina, Liz Allan. That’s Peter’s first and only ex, ‘and you’ve broken up with them for a reason’ but recently, they’ve been getting along well. They’ve spent the last few days after school with each other, of course, working on their US History project. They had to do much of the project on their own, without their partner, Hobie. He’s done practically nothing for the project because he’s occupied with something every day. It’s ridiculous! Although the two enjoyed each other's company, they didn’t mind Hobie’s absence. 

But his absence didn’t last forever, when he arrived in 2nd period US history, on time!  
“Hey guys,” Hobie greeted them once he sat down.   
“Uh-Hobie… you’re here?” Liz shockingly pointed out. It genuinely stunned her. He actually arrived on time. She really thought they had to finish the project without Hobie’s contributions.   
“Why wouldn’t I be?”  
“Well, you haven’t been here since last week,” Peter pointed out the obvious. It’s weird to see a group mate appear outta thin air.   
“I had… work,” Hobie reasoned. To be fair, there was truth to that reason.  
“Work that early?”  
“Their hours… were crazy! But I quit. My dad hated me ditching school for a job”  
“Well, we’re glad you’re here, Hobie!”  
“So… what do we need to finish?” He asked.   
“Oh, well, we got the script done, questions done… and video, not done,” Liz quietly listed off. She didn’t want to draw anyone’s attention, especially Ms. Nelson’s. Since they have practically less than a week till, they have to turn it in.   
“Yeah, we still have to film-” Peter mentioned till Liz motioned him to lower his volume. If their teacher heard that they’ve been procrastinating, they’ll never hear the end of it.   
“Well, I can film… I got the equipment and everything”  
“You wanna?” Peter asked.   
“Yeah, I need to work on something, or else Ms. Nelson won't give me points for this,” Hobie responded.   
“Well, by all means, go ahead! Also, where’d you wanna meet up after school?”  
“You have football, don’t you? We can meet there,” Liz mentioned.   
“Actually… I got cut from the team. Coach hated that I’ve been absent for a long time.”  
Peter and Liz turned to each other and silently mouthed, “Oh.”   
“It’s alright, let’s just meet in the locker room area, then we’ll go.”  
“Sounds good,” the other two unanimously agreed.  
Then, in the blink of an eye, it’s lunchtime. That’s how school was sometimes. Sure, classes may feel long in the moment, but when you take a step back and look back through your day, it felt like a blink.   
Now Peter sat down with his best friend, Harry, at their usual table, taking a bite of his food. Although, his friend didn’t look like himself. He seemed exhausted and not in the best mood. Peter didn’t enjoy eating in silence, so he checked upon him, “Hey Har, you alright? You seem… quiet.”  
“I-it’s Gwen. She hasn’t spoken to me since Tuesday, Pete. I don’t know what I did,” he admitted.  
“You know, Gwen probably needs time… alone”  
Harry completely dismissed what Peter advised, “I need to buy her a gift, what should I buy her?”  
“If you ask me, the gift she needs is time”  
“Nah, something she can grab. Y’know chicks dig that”  
“Sure…”   
“Has she spoken to you, Pete?”  
“Uh-no, she hasn’t,” he slowly answered as he rubbed the back of his neck.  
“O-okay. Well, there’s MJ, I’ll ask her about Gwen,” he answered, and approached the scarlet-haired beauty.   
To Peter, it seemed like Harry & Gwen’s relationship was falling apart. It was only a matter of time until they split… and it conflicted Peter. Sure, he’d love to be with Gwen, that’s what he dreamed of. But he didn’t know if what he wanted was the right thing to do. His best friend needed help. And if his current girlfriend leaves him, who knows what else could happen. Sure, he could get another girlfriend, but would that be enough to fill in the void? 

After school, Peter & Liz met up with Hobie and entered Hell’s Kitchen together. Sure, they went to grab a snack first, because… teenagers. But then afterward, they finally arrived at the law firm. They opened the door to see the three of them, standing by the secretary’s desk.  
“Hey, I’m Hobie... Brown,” he introduced himself to the lawyers.  
“Guys, this is Hobie. Hobie, this is Matt, Mr. Nelson, and Ms. Page,” Peter introduced them to his partner. Foggy turned to Karen and whispered, “Did he seriously call us Mr. Nelson and Ms. Page?”   
“I guess he did…”  
“Man, we’re getting old, aren’t we?” Foggy jokingly pointed out as he shared a chuckle with her.  
“Don’t mind them… So today, are we finally going to film?” Matt asked.  
“Yeah, we got the equipment right here”  
“Great, let’s get this going… also, our schedule is getting kinda tight this week, so we may have to kick you out earlier than usual,” Foggy mentioned.   
“Oh, the rest of this week?”  
“That’s alright, Mr. Nelson… either way, we got homecoming later on”  
“Really? Homecoming, huh?”  
Peter and Liz awkwardly glared at each other when homecoming’s brought up.   
Especially since, according to Sally, Homecoming was the dance of the semester. Let’s get this straight, it’s better than The Winter formal but smaller than The Prom. But the only dance Peter had gone to was the winter formal, unless you count The Mother & Son dance in 7th grade. Either way, he usually misses out on these events because, well… he didn’t have a date. Even last year’s winter formal, Ms. Betty Brant of the Daily Bugle was Peter’s ideal pick. He didn’t want to take ‘Ms. Wonderful Personality’ to his first dance. But Betty didn’t go with Peter, so he settled for Ms. Wonderful Personality because his Aunt told him to give her a chance. And he did, and oh boy yeah… he lucked out! Mary Jane Watson was like what he pictured an angel was.   
Now, he didn’t know if he could have the same magic he had with MJ, with anyone else. It was a weird feeling to have.  
“Man, I missed those days,” Foggy commented.   
“Foggy, stop reminiscing in the past”  
“C’mon, Matt, those were my glory days!”  
“Mr. Murdo- I mean, Matt, you went to dances?” Liz curiously asked.  
“Matt Murdock? Oh yeah, he did! Especially during college… he would go with this nice suit and a bowtie. He may not seem like it, but he was a stud.”  
Matt smiled at the compliment as he shared his story on how things actually went, “Oh man, I hated that bowtie. It felt tight… but the woman I dated insisted that I wear it, so I did”  
“Yeah, she was crazy… Elektra- she’s Greek, right?” Foggy asked.   
“I-uh don’t remember-”   
“But what I remember, is to finish filming this video! Let’s go set up for filming,” Peter strongly suggested. His group mates immediately agreed and got to work on filming. 

Honesty - Allan Residence, Queens, New York

After they finished filming their documentary, Peter & Liz headed to her house to finish editing the video. But it was silent in Liz’s room. Not a single word between them since they arrived from the law firm. The only sound heard was the soft breeze coming through the window.   
Meanwhile, Peter was trying to muster up the courage to talk to her about something that has been running in his head.  
‘Here we go, Parker luck!’  
“So Liz, are you- um… are you going to the dance?” He awkwardly asked.  
“Um…” she mumbled as her eyes awkwardly darted around.  
“Oh-sorry, if I-,” he stammered as his hand rubbed the back of his neck.   
“Don’t apologize, I’ve been really busy with this history interview and catching up with my homework, I haven’t had time to make plans with anyone. What about you?”  
“Me- no. You know me, the awkward geek that can’t talk to girls.”  
“I wouldn’t say that, there’s more to you,” she smiled at him.  
“W-what would you say about me? Remember Liz, honesty,” Peter hilariously pointed out their promise, which she immediately laughed at his reminder.   
“Okay, in total honesty, I’d say that you’re a guy of many talents, but you don’t know it. You can be the coolest guy at school, while also being really smart. But you don’t.”  
“Well-thanks… for the insight.”  
“Ahem… my turn! Remember Petey-” she poked his shoulder with a small grin.   
“I know, honesty. Okay, Liz… you’re an amazing, beautiful person, who’s really smart… and you’re capable of anything, once you set your mind to it,” he admitted. Her cheeks immediately blushed in response to the compliments he gave.   
“Really? That’s what you think about me?” Her voice subtly croaked.   
“I do, Liz. You’re an amazing person, anyone would be lucky to be with you,” he expressed.   
A genuine smile grew on her face, “T-that’s probably the sweetest thing, any guy’s told me”  
“I’m sure plenty of guys tell you that,” Peter quickly dismissed her comment.  
“Guys tell me I’m pretty, beautiful, and gorgeous, and that’s pretty much it.”  
“Guys right… real shallow,” he quipped.   
“You’re different from the rest of them, Petey. There’s more to you than meets the eye”  
“You know me, that’s one of my many talents”  
“Very Clever,” she playfully slapped his arm.  
“Hey, s-since I have all this free time at night, I’m trying to go to the dance, not alone… and you know, if my Aunt’ll let me go out that night, you wanna be my date, Liz?”  
Liz’s heart stopped right there. Not a screeching halt, but a sudden stop. This is what she wanted. All she wanted was Peter’s full attention, and now, she’ll finally get it.   
“That’s why you gave all those compliments, sweet-talking me, aren’t ya Petey?” She giggled as her cheeks blushed. Peter immediately shared a chuckle with her, “You know me, quite the Sweet-talker. And we could go as friends, i-if you want?”  
She smiled at him, “Well, I’ll be your date… as a friend. Although an enormous poster and a box of chocolates would’ve been nice”  
“You know me, cheap and broke,” he playfully shrugged.   
“You’re really milking that joke, aren’t you, Petey?”  
“Yes, Ms. Allan, I am, you gotta problem with it?” he chuckled. Then the unexpected happened.   
Liz came close to him and suddenly softly kissed him on the cheek. The kiss caught him off guard. He’d never thought in a million years after their break-up that she’d ever kiss him again. Heck, even talking to him was a bit of a stretch at first. ‘Wait, I-I don’t think friends do that…’   
“Thank you, Petey.”  
“For what exactly?”  
“For being the only good thing today,” Liz placed her hand on his cheek, which led him to blush.   
“Bad day?”   
“Just overwhelming, I had to worry about this project, my new cheer routines, and my unit test for Anatomy… But you calmed the storm, you calmed my storm,” she admitted.  
“Anyone could’ve-”  
“But you did,” she cradled his hand and gazed at him. Now, this was the weirdest feeling in the world for Peter. A few weeks ago, he hadn’t spoken to her for months, and now, they are closer than ever. Physically and emotionally.   
Liz gazed down at his soft lips, tempted to indulge with them. Peter gazed into her bright, amber eyes, and leaned closer into her. It tempted him to kiss her. To connect with her emotionally and physically.   
Till time got in their way. More specifically, loud phone alarms.   
‘BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!’ his phone sounded.  
The two teenagers immediately jumped back and snapped themselves out of the moment. He instantly shut off the alarm.  
“Wha-What was that?” Liz asked.   
“Oh, that’s my 10-minute alarm,” he explained.  
“For?”  
“It tells me when it’s 10 minutes before my curfew- oh wait, I gotta go!” Peter quickly jumped and reached for his stuff.   
“Oh-um, let me walk you out, Petey!” she rose and followed him to the door.   
Once they reached out the door, it felt awkward. Awkwardness is inevitable in high school, but to have an alarm go off in the middle of intimacy is another level. However, Liz tried to apologize, “Petey, I’m sorry if I made this kinda awk-”  
“No, I’m sorry… my alarm interrupted- whatever that was”  
“Well, I guess… we’re both sorry, huh,” she softly mentioned. After, a small smirk grew on her face, which was hard to hide.  
“I guess so… Goodnight!” he slowly waved.  
She waved back, “Night, Petey! Get home safe!”  
Peter practically yelled at himself, the entire time he left the building,‘Wha-what the heck was that, Parker! I seriously dropped the ball on that one! Liz-she was about to kiss me and my alarm went off… such Parker luck!’   
He immediately darted for home, trying to arrive before his 7 pm curfew… or before his aunt yells at him for being late.

Parker Residence

10 minutes later, he arrived home without breaking a single sweat. ‘7:00 phew!’ But when he peered through the window, he noticed through his aunt cooking up a meal in the kitchen, while she was singing. She’s in a good mood… hopefully. Well, if anyone sings while they’re cooking, they’re probably in a great mood. And that’s what Peter needed right now. ‘Okay, here it goes… Parker luck, don’t fail me now!’ he thought before he opened the door.  
Peter slowly approached her and greeted her with a soft kiss on the cheek. “A-aunt May, I need your help,” he upfront told her.   
“I know, I know, this is sudden, and I honestly don’t deserve your help, but I want to patch things up,” Peter quickly admitted. He knew he wronged his aunt, but he didn’t know he could be honest with her, without her freaking out. He didn’t know any situation where his aunt didn’t freak out.  
“Awe dear. Things haven’t been the best between us, but I’ll always be there to help you”  
“Thanks, Aunt May”  
“What’d you need help with”  
“Um-the homecoming dance…”  
“Homecoming?! Oh, dear! You got a date?”  
“Uh-um yeah, it’s Liz Allan”  
“Oh, Elizabeth? I remember her… and her mother, they’re both sweet. Although I thought you and Mary Jane Watson hit it off,” his aunt commented.   
“Yeah-no, she probably being taken by another kid”  
“That’s a shame. I thought you would’ve enjoyed her wonderful personality”  
‘MJ Watson… Ms. Wonderful personality, ew,’ Peter internally irked.   
“Sure, Aunt May”  
“But you really like this young lady, Peter?”  
“Well, we are just going as friends.”  
“Oh, okay. Let’s make sure, you’re honest with this young lady”  
‘Honesty. Wasn’t that the word of the night?’ Peter told himself.

The Next Day - Midtown Children’s Hospital 

Hospitals aren’t usually the popular place to meet with loved ones… well, actually they are, but it isn’t usually a joy to see them there. It’s actually quite concerning to see the people you love in the hospital. Sometimes you’d think they’d be on their deathbed, but thank god they survived. While unfortunately, others don’t really get to say that.   
But Macdonald Gargan enjoys going to the hospital to see his daughter, Elizabeth. He’d love to see his daughter get better with all the treatments she gets. But she doesn’t get better. No matter what the doctors do for her, that damn leukemia won’t go away. It pissed Gargan off.   
He keeps seeing other kids with leukemia get outta the hospitals much quicker than his daughter has. They keep getting better while she keeps getting worse. But occasionally his therapist would tell him to look on the bright side. And the only bright side to his life was his daughter… but he couldn’t stand seeing her like this. Not even all the corrupted money Wilson Fisk could give him could fill that void of happiness.   
Gargan usually spends his days at the hospital, either playing chess or other board games with her, going to the vending machine and getting her snacks, and watching whatever show was on the hospital tv.   
Although occasionally, something interrupted the routine. Today, he felt a mild buzzing from pockets. It was his burner phone that he only used for Wesley. He rolled his eyes and excused himself out of the room.   
“Look, Wesley right now is not a good time and-” Gargan sharply answered the phone.   
Till he heard a rather profound voice, “Mr. Gargan… this isn’t Wesley.”  
Mac immediately knew what was going on. He sharply whispered into the phone, “What do you want?”  
“We have one more piece of business to handle, Mr. Gargan. I was going to offer another task, but it seems like I put too much on your shoulders,” Fisk commented.   
Gargan was in disbelief, rolling his eyes at his comment, “What business? Remember, I said that’s the last job, then we’re done-”  
“I remember,” Fisk interrupted. “But I also remember that I pay the bill for your daughter,” he added.  
“Wait, what? No, you-”  
“I do, Mr. Gargan. That’s my money, after all. You're just an employee. And employees don’t get paid if they don’t do their job.”   
Gargan grew agitated on the phone. He thought he’s done with Fisk and his entire operation. He thought he shut out that part of his life. But no, it just came back to bite him in the butt.   
“Fine, what do you need?”  
“I need you to take care of another vigilante. Patrol the area of Hell’s Kitchen, he roams in that Area. Take him out… tonight. Once he’s gone, we’re done. Deal.”  
“Ugh… fine. Deal,” Mac responded and looked back at his ill daughter. He immediately ended the call and headed back to her room, with a fake smile on his face. His therapist told him to smile because it’ll make him feel better about his situation. And he smiled. But it didn’t change how he felt. It felt like fake feelings. And Elizabeth knew a fake smile when she saw one. And that right there was probably the worst attempt at his fake smile.

Hell’s Kitchen 

Usually, Hell’s Kitchen wasn’t the best place to visit at night, especially in the rain. You’ll never know who’s going to appear from the shadows. An eerie stench of the neighborhood is unsettling. The many drug trades and human trafficking going around the docks, several muggings, and robberies of the vulnerable in the alleys. And that’s just the start of it. It’s a pretty scummy place. It’s the worst place in the City. A Hell hole, how some describe it. People only went there because they had business…   
And that’s why Mac Gargan was there. He patrolled on top of buildings for the Man in the Mask or the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen… he didn’t know what they’re calling him these days. He only knew what the masked vigilante was, from newspapers and news sites, or else that's it. He has no info on this vigilante, but he came to do the dirty deed, or else Fisk will never leave him alone. He should’ve never been with Fisk, but y’know what they say, don’t fix your past mistakes, just don’t make the same mistake.   
And not far away from him, the infamous black masked vigilante stood on the roof of the building. He sensed Gargan’s presence from meters away, and he wasn't happy about it. Then the vigilante launched his body at him, aiming for his head. Obviously, he’s mildly successful, because of the armor around the Scorpion.  
The Man in Black growled, “Wha-what are you doing in my neighborhood?”  
“I’m here for you… there’s a bounty on your head,” The Scorpion’s tail grabbed his shoulder and threw him to the ground. His face smacked the surface of the roof, resulting in blood streaming from his nose. “Who sent you? The Kingpin?” The vigilante uttered. Although it was hard to understand him with his face being on the floor.  
“None of your business. I’m only here for business.”  
“I guess I gotta settle some business as well,” he uttered as he rose off the surface.   
“I agree”  
Then the Man in Black ran up to the Scorpion, with one intention, to get him out of his neighborhood. And he had to make his point clear, no one with ill intentions, steps foot in Hell’s Kitchen. So he threw his heavy punches into the assailant’s chest, trying to cause some damage. And the Scorpion wasn’t quick, or skilled at fighting hand to hand. That’s the Man in Black’s domain.   
But that didn’t matter, because of the synthetic green armor all around him. And the tail that packed a punch, that knocked the vigilante around, like he was a tennis-ball. Resulting in repeated slashes all over his body. The Man in Black didn’t even have body armor, so nothing would protect him. So it covered his outfit in blood, and he was getting constantly weaker, the more blood that flows out of his skin. Got extremely weakened, that he dropped to the floor, without Scorpion even landing his last punch.   
Mac went over to him, with his tail engaged, and ready to fulfil his job. Gargan could end him right here, no witnesses to see his irrevocable act. His scorpion tail has proven to be capable of creating damage, especially conducting an execution. And this act could cut ties with Wilson Fisk forever, if he took his life.   
It was just one man in a city of 8 million. It wasn’t a group of innocent children, only a man. What harm could it do? And he was already bleeding out, so why not end his misery? The man in the mask was right there, like a wounded bird… why not do it? He didn’t have to stare at the man’s eyes once he died; they were covered.  
But when Mac Gargan saw his reflection in the man's puddle of blood, he didn’t see himself. He couldn’t even see his face.  
He saw a monster, with large bloodthirsty fangs, small black eyes and a hard exterior. It wasn’t him, and it freaked him out. It took him back to his appearance. Was this the thing he was becoming, a monstrous puppet for the Kingpin? He’s disgusting, not by the appearance, but by not seeing himself anymore. He couldn’t recognize who he was, and it frightened him. His engaged tail launched at the ground, missing the vigilante’s head by a hair.  
“I-I’m sorry…” Gargan quietly apologized.   
It retracted to its form, and he ran away, leaving the man in the mask to live another day.

Freaky Friday - Allan Residence

Peter nervously stood outside the large double doors and made the first knock. He fidgeted with the flowers that Aunt May bought for him. They couldn’t afford a corsage, but Peter believed the beautiful bouquet would suffice.  
‘Here we go, Parker, go make a man out of yourself… wait, what? It’s just homecoming, no big deal… right?’ he nervously pondered.   
Seconds later, no answer.   
He knocked on the door again… No answer again. ‘What the- did I scare her off? Where are her parents? I swear every time I visit, I never see her parents… maybe that’s a good thing’   
Right as he was going to knock for the third time, the door cracked open.   
Then it flew wide open, and it shined with beauty.   
“Y-you look g-gorgeous, Liz,” the boy was absolutely speechless. He tried his best for his jaw to not actually drop, but it was impossible. He was stunned by how Liz looked.   
Usually, she looked great, even without makeup, but her outfit for homecoming was on another level. It was a tight, shoulderless, scarlet dress, with black accents around the waistline.   
“You look gorgeous too, Petey,” she humorously responded.   
“What can I say? I pull off button-ups pretty well,” he humorously responded, which led to her smile.   
To be fair to Peter, this was the best he could do with his budget. Of course he styled his hair to the best of his ability, sprayed cologne all over him, and ironed out his outfit… maybe the cologne was a bit much.  
“Wow, the confidence I see, Petey,” she dusted off his shoulder.   
“This is barely anything, Ms. Allan… oh uh- shall we?” Peter held his hand out to her as an older gentleman would. It was like he was asking her to dance the way he’s posed.   
“We shall… you seem so weird when you try to be fancy,” she mentioned.  
“Eh, I guess that’s not one of my many talents”  
“Figures,” Liz winked at him and smirked. 

Lows - Fisk Community Center

The Fisk Community Center held a private gathering, only those invited by the Fisk’s team could go. Most of those who’re invited were most of the upper class. Those with fancy high-quality suits, dresses, and watches. And those who can donate big money. Those kinds of people.   
Although some figures that they invited were questionable. One invited guest hasn’t seen the daylight of public appearances since his infamous arrest on one Valentine’s Day. It’s the infamous ‘Big Man of Crime,’ L. Thompson Lincoln, alias Tombstone.   
“Mr. Lincoln, I’m glad you could make it,” Fisk greeted him as he shook his hand. Lincoln was reluctant to even go to such a gathering like this. Why would Fisk even invite him? Did he have some plan to disbar him after all the guests left? Who knows...  
Tombstone noticed around the room, wealthy men and women surrounded him. And all those people stared at him, wondering why an infamous crime boss was invited to a sophisticated gathering like this.   
“Mr. Fisk. Looks like you have quite the supporters.”  
“I agree.”  
It seemed like he’d gained a lot of attention for his ankle monitor, and the security guards, who were larger than he was. Those guards were a part of the government agencies, who made sure that the former crime boss wasn’t making any more illegal dealings with anyone.   
Lincoln lowered his voice, “What do you hope to accomplish here tonight, Mr. Fisk?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I know your intentions aren’t for the right reasons. I assume you’d show off your success for what you’ve done for the underground”  
“Mr. Lincoln, I believe you misunderstand my actions. I love New York with all my heart, it’s the city that birthed me. I would do anything to make this city a better place. It has nothing to do with your business”  
“Please. You truly believe I’d believe any word you’ve said?” The pale man scoffed.   
“No, I don’t. I want you to understand… that this city shouldn’t be like a business. We should treat New York like an old home. Tear down what’s rotting, and replace it with additional aspects, like drywall. In order for it to thrive, it must die before it could be reborn.”   
There was an unsettling moment of silence between the two crime lords. Tombstone couldn’t comprehend Fisk's plan to save the city. Why would he try saving New York? He never has… he always believed that only the hero in pajamas could. But not crime bosses like him. Plus, why would he want to, this city hasn’t done him any favors now and hasn’t then?   
“Excuse me, I must go address my guest,” he excused himself.   
Fisk went up on that stage, with the confidence of a silverback gorilla.   
“I’m glad that all of you have come out here tonight. It’s nice to see all of you.”  
When he addressed his guests, they seemed distracted, chatting amongst themselves.  
“Ahem, as you all might know, I, Wilson Fisk, am running for Major in the beautiful New York City. But you may see me as an outsider, because of all my riches. Probably because of my wealth, you may see me as a wolf… but that’s not true.   
In fact, if you didn’t know, I am a New York native, born in Hell’s Kitchen. I wasn’t born into a rich family, some would say I was born into poverty. Although we had a roof and electricity, it wasn’t eloquent. It wasn’t the ideal situation for any family. But my father believed he could get us through that time if we gained more money. Take more jobs for our family. So he would get to work and earn money… enough money that we could tear down the rotting walls of our apartment and replace them with new wallpaper. Even though our landlord was skeptical, we got it done. Then we changed out the old carpet and fixed our plumbing, and there it was, a brand new home. It was a more comfortable home. People didn’t believe the before and after pictures of our home.   
I used to live in filth, but we had to reinvent ourselves to be comfortable in our home. And that’s what I want to do for this city.   
As long as I’ve lived in New York, I remembered the filth, the grime, trash bins, the large sewer rats, all of that… was unpleasant. But I’m here to bring the best out of this city, not from a surface level, but more than that. This city deserves that.   
Not the masked lunatics, running around, injuring, or running away from police officers. They claim they aren’t criminals, but those who wear masks have something to hide. It’s unfair that our citizens of New York should have to live in fear… of those who hide in the shadows. And it’s up to us, up to me, to drive them out of the city! That is my promise to you all, as mayor of New York City, to rebuild our city into something more beautiful than it currently is.”   
After he uttered the last words of his speech, all his guests rose and gave him a standing ovation. He had full support of the people, something that L. Thompson Lincoln will never get. 

Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School

30 minutes after everyone arrived at the dance, that’s when the party started. The music grew louder and the bass of the speakers made dancing fun. Sure, most of them weren’t talented dancers, but teenagers don’t go to Homecoming to dance. They go to hang out, have fun, and if they’re lucky, they’d get y’know… wink, wink, at the end of the night. Also, for the voting of the Homecoming’s King & Queen… duh.   
But eventually, you’ll need a break from the fun, especially when your mouth is dry. You just need a drink.   
And that’s what Peter did. He went to the refreshments to get a drink for himself and Liz. When he was pouring both of their drinks, a familiar fresh approached him.  
“Hey, you-you’re Pedro, right?” Miles called out to him.  
“No, Peter actually. Miles, right?”  
“Yeah… um- you used to take pictures of Spidey… before you know-”   
“Yes, I did.”  
Well Miles had a lot of questions for him, so he blurted out all them at once, “Well, what happened to him? Where did he go? He couldn’t have just disappeared.”  
“He- um, went somewhere? He probably wanted to try new things,” Peter reasoned.  
“Hm… you really think so?”  
“I-I would think so. Probably swinging from buildings got boring.”  
“Boring… how? He’s Spider-Man… he fights the bad guys! That must pump up some adrenaline, right?”  
“Being Spider-Man isn’t as fun as it seems, Miles. Dangerous people are after him and he can die any night he’s out there, which is scary”  
“Oh…”  
Then Peter's Attention was interrupted with the corner of his eye noticing Harry walking away from Gwen. He appeared upset as he stomped away from the attention. Then he turned his attention to a weeping Gwen Stacy.   
“Yeah, now I gotta check on my friend,” the senior walked away from Miles.  
“For a photographer, he sure knows alot about Spidey,” the young freshman quietly muttered.   
Across the gym, the red-haired Mary Jane Watson approached her date, Hobie Brown, “Hey big guy, you alright? You look off.” His eyes glared at MJ with the awkwardest smile ever. He tried too hard to seem calm and collected, while also being nervous. Paranoid was the right term.   
“I’m fine- I’m alright, Mary Jane. I’m just gonna go to the restroom.”  
“Alright Hobie. But could you get me juice-” the redhead softly asked.   
But before she could request anything, Hobie left, completely ignoring her. His eyes kept darting around, frightened by his surroundings. He darted for the restroom, trying to avoid any eye contact because he’s such a nervous wreck.  
MJ wondered, ‘What’s up with him?’  
Hobie went into the nearest stall and tried to calm himself down. Was he being paranoid? Was he not? Was he just overthinking? Did Fisk send his men to kill him? SO MANY QUESTIONS ONLY ONE ANSWER!   
Then there was a slight movement above him. It was in the vent. A little mysterious shake, moving side to side. Something was in the vents. Honestly, it creeped Hobie out. ‘Were there ghosts after me too? Nah, c’mon Brown, you’re overthinking this! C’mon, the girl of your dreams is out there, waiting… and you’re gonna stay in here, cuz you're scared. Hell, Miles is out there, probably talking to his first girl since preschool! That’s worth the memories. C’mon, let's get out there!’ he screamed at himself.   
He was about to push the stall open, looking to have a fun time, till that sound from the vent grew louder.   
And Louder.   
And Louder.  
CRASH! Something dropped outta the vent. Actually someone, in a black skin-tight leather bodysuit, and snowy white hair. Her emerald eyes shined through her black mask.  
It’s the cat-burglar, Black Cat!  
She purred him into the corner, “He knew you’re gonna be here?”  
“AH- Crap!” At that moment, Hobie’s feet were in quicksand, trapped in a corner of the bathroom. Her eyes stared into his soul, drawing him closer, like he was bait.  
“Sorry that it has come to this, handsome… but Kingpin wants you alive, so let’s make this easier than it should be, okay, honey?” Black Cat sharply chirped at Hobie.  
His eyes grew wide and stared at the woman with his hands up. He felt tense, not knowing what to do. “Look Cat lady, I’m not the guy you’re looking for”  
Hobie frantically thought, ‘Escape from the crazy lady… run, fight? Or accept defeat… I guess run it is!’  
“And yet, I know a runner when I see one…” she growled at him.  
Instantly, he thought quickly and threw himself at her, knocking her down, and making a way for escape. The running back burst out of the stall, acting paranoid once he left the bathroom. His eyes darted all over the place, looking for the next enemy that came his way. Some kids have never seen the calm and collected Hobie like this, which stirred up their curiosity. He looked like he was in major trouble, and he kinda was, because there was this crazy Cat lady coming after him.   
But then, he stopped in his tracks, when his eyes set on an individual in red and yellow outfit, with large metal gauntlets, The SHOCKER!   
“CRAP!” he uttered as his eyes bulged out of his skull.   
Peter headed towards his weeping friend. Gwen appeared upset or sad… or whatever girls feel whenever they break up with their boyfriend. Heartbroken wasn’t the right word.   
She sat criss-cross applesauce alone, in the gym's corner with hands covered her crying eyes as she felt awful. It’s like something bit a piece of her heart. Sure, she didn’t like Harry Osborn in that romantic way, even though he’s sweet and she’s relieved that she became honest with him. But she still cares for him and his well-being, and she wanted to help him from falling into his self-destructive pit.   
She snapped out of her tears for a second, when she saw Peter Parker appear. He’s the reason she left Harry. The she-geek wanted to be with the king geek from the start of summer.   
“Gwen, you-you’re alright?”  
“You know I’m not, why’d you even ask?” ‘She’s right, why even ask? C’mon Parker!’  
“I-um… old habit,” he awkwardly reasoned.   
“Hey girlfriend, you okay?”  
Peter turned to her, “Wrong question to ask right now, MJ”  
“My bad. C’mon Tiger, let’s give her some alone time,” she told him, as she dragged him away from the blonde. Sometimes people need space.  
“So… how’s your night been?” Peter asked MJ as they walked away.  
“Eh- honestly, it’s been fine. But Hobie’s been acting off. Kinda worried for him”  
“Like, how weird?”  
“Just weird. He even looks paranoid, and on edge”  
“You want me to check on him?”  
“Would you? He went to the restroom. But- wait, you should go back to Liz. I’ll check on him.”  
“Oh Liz, she’s just talking to Sally, and her crowd… No Big, It’ll be a minute.” He walked away from her and headed towards where Hobie was.  
When Peter went near the proximity of the boys’ bathroom, he noticed a small crowd of freshmen and sophomores flee. Something scared them, as they screamed for their lives. Then he turned to see what was all about. However, he felt the hallway shake with the familiar sound of a blast. He smelt smoke coming from that area.   
Then Hobie burst outta that area. “PETER! RUN!” Clouds of smoke followed him as he ran.  
“From what?”  
Then another blast shook the hallway.   
“FROM THAT!”  
From inside the smoke, a voice echoed, “C’mere Brown, this isn’t personal, just business. Although I’m starting to take it personally.” This voice had an oddly familiar texas accent, straight outta a spaghetti western. ‘Wait, that accent… I’d know from anywhere? It’s the Rodeo Clown… Shocker. I still don’t know how he got outta Rykers’  
There was smoke filling the hallway. Got to a point where it was nothing but smoke. And Peter and Hobie got lost in the smoke, not knowing what direction to go. They kept bumping into walls, doors, and student’s lockers. More blasts from Shocker caused parts of the school to crumble. Some of these shots weren’t even close to their target, as he fired blindly into the crowds of kids. But Peter could barely make out anything, with the smoke in his eyes. He may have stepped on some kids on the ground, he wouldn’t know, everything was in a daze.

‘I’ve made up my mind, free time isn’t the best thing in the world’

To Be Continued…   
To address the comments from the previous chapters. (2/12/21)

Fanfiction.com

Sd74: Reading to the end of this chapter somehow makes me think that Cat wanted Peter not to get hurt or just out of the picture. And without finishing the chapter I thought what would Cat think once she read the news.  
Then I thought, what if, that Pete would somehow make Miles (if he decides to be a new spider-man) less likely to die.  
P.S. for them to be an item then they definitely need a push.  
P.P.S. I literally have no idea why I thought "This Peter" would own a lab/resources with his 7 o'clock curfew.  
Man, it’s like you already read part of this chapter. Although Black Cat is scrappy, she cares about Spider-Man, even if they ended off on bad-terms. -TheTypingAvocado

Sd74: ... I now thought of it... what if Peter uses an older costume and shows up for media worldwide and says, "you mentioned that you don't need to hide behind a mask, you could say...," takes off mask, "neither do I. You blame me for your family's death then I will blame you for everyone close to me 'dissappear' after this... goodbye... NewYork." Webs every camera and leaves.  
I think this is close to Civil War, where he reveals his identity to the world. However, I don’t think Spectacular Spider-Man is ready for that yet. - TheTypingAvocado

OBSERVER01 nli: Nice chapter. Keep up the good work.  
Thanks for the much support! - TheTypingAvocado

Guest: I hope you get Pete and Gwen to realize Harry was lying and make a return of tombstone, doc OCD and the sinister six and silvermane and silver sable. But it's your story but I recommend making a return of the 3 criminal organizations to see their reactions of spider man quitting and how they are trying to rebuild since Valentine's Day due to hammerhead and Norman actions and kingpin as the new crime king.  
From what I remember from the show, it left off with Silvermane and most of the sinister six in jail. I believe Doc Ock was in jail as well (I’m not sure, in fact, check me on that). Now I don’t think Fisk would release his competition from jail, and if they were released in any sort a way, Fisk would take them out. - TheTypingAvocado

Percyfanjackson: This is soooooo awesome! I wanna see more of that peter and flash bond and liz/pete, the one in spectacular spider-man was way too short and i wanted to see how that would unfold. definitely an underrated pairing.  
Thank you so much! I think the bond between Flash and Peter could be great, and I hope I elaborate on that more. Also, I agree that Liz & Peter is an underrated pairing because it isn’t the common staple of Peter & Gwen, or Peter & MJ. - TheTypingAvocado  
Guest: Very impressive. You should explore Harry's resentment and jealousy towards Pete and how he yearned for his fathers approval and how he manipulated people to earn it such as Glory and Gwen and the football team. Also you should put tombstone, Otto and the sinister six, and the manfredi family gang in this story because it would present opportunities for them to try to get back what they lost and start gang wars against kingpin. I like to point out that The symbiote is still loose in the sewer looking for a host and Eddie still rendered insane, the conners are in Florida due to miles warren blackmail, and Norman's still out there. Keep up the good work.  
Thank you for the insight, and I do plan to explore most of those ideas in future chapters. Although keep in mind, from what I remember, Silver Mane was in jail, and Otto & the sinister six were in jail. My plan for this story is to focus on the corruption of New York, and what Peter will do. -TheTypingAvocado

NevarSparda2099: Gotta say I'm enjoying the stoey so far maybe when he does come back he could get a new suit. Possibly the Imomniac one?  
Thanks for the support! I like the insomniac suit, but I do prefer different designs than that. It’s still a cool suit.

Archive of Our Own:

UtterlyErraticDetective: Gotta say, integrating Daredevil and Kingpin into the TSSM universe was definetly the right call. Well done!  
Thank you! After finishing Daredevil, he’s become one of my favorite characters. And I kinda want to expand the city into Hell’s Kitchen. - TheTypingAvocado

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Message from the Author, TheTypingAvocado: 
> 
> I hope y’all enjoyed the story so far; I appreciate those who’ve read it all the way. Those are the real supporters. You guys keep me motivated to finish this fic! At the end of the day, I want to write a wonderful story that I’d enjoy reading. But if you guys enjoy reading it, it’s an instant plus!  
> Now in the story, alot is going on, especially during the Homecoming Dance. Liz & Peter go to Hoco (as friends) because they don’t want to complicate things. Gwen breaks up with Harry, which explains him leaving so early. MJ has gotten worried for Hobie, and Fisk is coming after Hobie, using Black Cat & Shocker as his puppets of execution.  
> Leave constructive criticism in this chapter and future chapters, it helps. :)   
> If you ever want to be friends, contact me on Discord: TheTypingAvocado#3942
> 
> Next Chapter: Chapter 7 Daze


	8. Daze (Chapter 7)

Daze (Chapter 7)  
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Spectacular Characters or Marvel Characters.

Trust Issues - Somewhere in New York

Back during a chilly evening in New York, running into someone you used to work with, was kinda awkward, and a tension filled encounter, especially for Felicia Hardy, or the Black Cat.  
“Of all the people I thought I'd see today, you're the last person I'd expect,” Spider-Man admitted to her.   
“Why’d you say that?” Black Cat curiously purred.  
“Well, last time… nevermind…”   
She remembered what happened last time. Every single second of their team up. But Spidey was in the way of freeing her father, and that’s something she couldn’t forgive.  
“You don’t sound very cherry?”   
“Being wanted for arrest isn’t the best feeling and the fact that I got beat by this green dude with a tail.”   
“Wait, the green dude with a tail?”   
“Yeah… do you know about him?”   
“They’ve dubbed him the Scorpion”   
“Well, that name fits him well.”   
“There’s been whispers from Tinkerer about this project, for someone big”   
“Wait… you’re talking about another Big Man of Crime. How? All the crime lords of New York, from the Master Planner, Tombstone, Silver-Mane to The Goblin, they’re all gone!”   
“So you’ve taken out his competition. Now he’s bigger than any of those Crime lords, even-”   
“Tombstone?! No that’s not possible…”   
“Spider, he’s the biggest of them all. He’s the biggest threat to take the city,” she emphasized.   
“Does this guy have a name?”   
“His men have been secretive, but when a cat claws away at the yarn, it unravels…”   
“Unravel, how exactly?”   
“One of his choked on the yarn and unraveled his name… Kingpin.”   
“Kingpin? Gotta admit better name than Tombstone. But it’ll be fun beating this guy.”  
“Careful there, Spider. You’re just a little spider caught up in a larger web.”   
“I know this guy is dangerous-”   
“No, he’s more than that. He has… everyone in his pocket, from the cops to well-trained assassins. And if he ever gets a peek under that mask of yours, he’ll come after everyone you’ve ever cared about.”  
“That’s why those cops are after me?” he asked.  
“Mhmm, his influence’s spread like wildfire.”  
“Well… thanks for the info Cat, this helps.”   
“Don’t mention it.”   
“You know, i-if you ever want to take this guy down together… you know where to-” He turned around to see nobody beside him. She vanished into the night.   
“Find me,” he muttered to himself.   
The Black Cat sneaked away from the wall crawler, barely hanging on the ledge of the building. She remembered the last time she interacted with Spider-man, which wasn’t the best memory. But she had this weird connection with Spider-Man, borderline intimate yet knowing nothing about each other.  
But she needed him to bite the bait that she’d set.  
She discreetly dialed up the man behind the trap, “The trap’s set… he’s coming for you, Fisk.”  
“Very Good Ms. Hardy, you’ve done a noble thing for my operation”  
“Yeah whatever, just don’t kill him, the Spider means well, Fisk”  
“If that were the case, New York would heal, not tearing itself apart because of him… ahem anyway, I promised your father safe passage out of Rykers”  
“You gonna get him out?”  
“I have my resources in that prison, to make sure that happens, Ms. Hardy,” he assured.  
“This better be worth it, Fisk, or else, Spider-Man isn’t the only one coming for you,” she hissed at him and immediately ended the call.   
She didn’t know what she did, but Fisk promised something that she has been wanting for most of her life, her father. Even though she had her chance, months ago, a spider got in the way, and left Felicia’s dad to rot in prison.  
But something didn’t feel right with Felicia. Working for The Kingpin felt like taking a mud bath with pigs. Doing the dirty work that benefits him. And some of that dirty work would hurt others.  
Although she’d certainly benefit from it as well. Nothing mattered to her… all she wanted was her father home with her.

Freaky Friday Night - Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School

Although, during that moment, Black Cat’s choice to work for Fisk was in a moral daze. Confusion was the right word to describe how she felt, witnessing panicked children rushing out of the school, because of what they've done.   
Was it the guilt that convicted her? Or that she was in highschool, not so long ago, and a situation like this would freak her out! Why not both?  
She remembered her highschool experiences were crazy weird, but nothing like this!  
Intruders attack at a school, because of a kid, who has dirt on your boss, doesn’t sound like a normal homecoming night.   
And everything was in a smokey daze, that rushed into the hallways, and reached, inevitably, the gym. Unfortunately, those gym doors were wide open, so there was nothing to stop the spread. And they could see nothing, only hear the dreadful blasts from the Shocker. But with the Black Cat’s goggles, it enhanced her sight, seeing through the smoke. But what she saw was utter chaos.   
Students in the gym were running left and right when they heard the two intruders attacking their school. But they had no clue where they’re going, with all that smoke in their eyes.   
Then the sound of Shocker’s blast rang throughout the gym. His reckless blasts caused ceiling speakers to tremble and fall.

And all hell broke loose.   
Pieces of the ceiling thunderously fell on the gym floor.   
The ceiling lights became unwired and detached, and enormous pieces of the scoreboard dropped on the students.   
Large speakers hurled down to the floor.   
Lights flickered.  
Large white beams collapsed to the floor. And unfortunately, there were students in the impact zone. And the debris abruptly fell on several kids. It felt like asteroids were crashing on the earth’s surface. Large objects falling from the sky, crushing the souls of the innocent, sounds like an asteroid shower.   
Actually, that’s a stretch, hormonal teenagers are not innocent.   
But they can act like helpless infants, when large equipment falls on top of them. It’s understandable why they are frightened, scared to death, cause they might actually die.  
Then one student clumsily tripped in front of her, face hitting the floor. Then when he saw her, standing in front of him, felt trapped. So he covered his head, and curled into a fetus, like a turtle, hiding in their shell. He didn’t fit the description of Hobie Brown, but he was in major trouble. Debris fell from the sky, and that kid felt trapped, scared to move. But the silver haired individual held out her hand, reaching out to the boy.   
The boy looked up at her forest green eyes, frightened at first glance. But her hand reached out for him, with no intent to hurt him.   
“It’s okay, handsome… I’m not gonna bite. Promise.”  
The kid took her word for it and held onto her hand and rose from the ground. He immediately darted for the exit without a single thought.  
“C’mon Montana, let’s go… catching Brown is a lost cause. Kingpin’s not gonna like the news's attention,” she commented. Shocker agreed, and they fled, running up the stairs.  
‘Oh boy, the big man’s not gonna like this’   
Then Peter zoned out for a hot second once he heard a familiar feline voice echo in the hallway. It sounded like a familiar feline he occasionally worked with… and ran into many instances, The Black Cat.   
“What! Why is Cat here? S-she never worked with Shocker before or any of Fisk’s goons before,” he murmured to himself.  
Then the sound of students screaming interrupted his train of thought.  
“PLEASE HELP US! HELP US! HELP! ANYONE!” several students screamed from underneath the fallen debris. They breathed heavily as the debris felt heavier on them every second that passed by.  
‘T-they need my help… THEY NEED MY HELP!’ He hurried over through the embers and gripped the heavy debris that was on top of the students. The geek mustered up all his strength.   
“AHHH!!!” Peter exclaimed as he tried to get a grip on the debris. It took a while to budge, but he finally got a grip on it and threw it off to the side.   
The students’ jaws dropped when they saw the kid who saved them from their imminent demise, was the king of the geek squad. They never thought Peter Parker had strength like that. Who wouldn’t be surprised? The geek of highschool may have saved their lives based on shear strength.  
“WHOA PARKER! That’s you?” Flash exclaimed.   
“Uh yeah… I-uh work out, once or twice a week”  
“No time for talking dude, Sally’s hurt… gotta get her outta here”  
“Oh right, make sure you get her to medical attention”  
“Thanks Parker, owe you one big time,” Flash thanked. Peter helped them get up from the rubble, so they could rush outta the building.  
‘Oh crap! What did I just do!’   
‘C’mon Parker, you did what you had to do to save Sally… even though she may not like you, you’d no other choice except doing the right thing… Right?’  
“C’mon, Petey, let’s get outta here!” Liz hurriedly grabbed his hand and rushed him out the doors.   
‘Gotta say, this wasn’t how I envisioned my Friday night going,’ Peter mentioned to himself.

Paranoia - Midtown Police Precinct 

10 minutes earlier…   
It was already a hectic day at the precinct. So many officers going in and out of the building, patrolling throughout the crime-loaded streets of New York, especially the Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood.   
Earlier in the month, several local tenants reported of the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, saving them from muggers at night. And also reporting that he beat the ever crap out of those muggers, which definitely left a brutal mark. So the police wanted to look out for the vigilante and arrest him, any chance they get. Even though, for some cops, they thought he was making their jobs easier.  
But lately this week, no reports of him… which left officers to search for other cases.   
And lucky for them, since the red-blue suit hero retired, nightly crimes have risen three times the normal rate, leaving police to chase all over the city for those criminals. And running all over the place was exhausting, so of course they need a break, especially the likes of Captain George Stacy. However, right as he finally sat down, he received another alert, “Captain Stacy, we have a situation.”  
“Where?” He urgently asked and rose from his seat.  
“Midtown Manhattan Magnet High is under attack!”   
“Goodness, Gwen, she’s there for the dance. C’mon let’s move, Carter, Dewolff, you’re with me,” he commanded and motioned them to their cars.  
“Wait, Midtown? My sons are there as well,” an officer mentioned.  
“You want to come along, Officer?...”  
“Davis. Jefferson Davis, sir”  
“New here… well then, you and me, Officer Davis. Carter, Dewolff in another car. Let’s get to it!”   
They rushed into their patrol cars and raced to the school, bursting past all the traffic lights and civilian cars. Especially Captain Stacy’s car… no parent wants to hear that their kid’s school was under attack by some megalomaniacs. And Jefferson Davis wasn’t too ecstatic to hear that it could hurt his son because of this attack.   
“Officer, Davis… is it? When’d you transfer to the Manhattan’s district?”  
“I-I was in Brooklyn’s district for a while, then over the summer, I transferred down here.”  
“You like it down here?”  
“I-I’m not sure at the moment, Cap”  
“I’ve been in this situation before, Officer… but my best advice to calm down”  
“How’d I do that?! If both my sons are in danger, nothing’s going to keep me calm”  
“Davis, it’s going to be alright. Your son’s going to be safe”  
“You sure about that, Captain Stacy”  
“Those words calm me down and keep me focused. And the worst thing to do on the force is to panic… leads to stupid decisions, which leads to recklessness… then later you know it, we got another casualty on our hands. Got it, Davis”  
“Got it,” he lowly uttered.   
That felt like the fastest drive once they finally arrived at the school. Other patrol cars followed and immediately rushed out of their cars and into the school. From their view, it appeared as if the school was untouched. But once they saw injured kids come through those doors, they knew the situation was serious.   
Kids' faces, covered with sweat, dirt and tears falling from their face. Their coughing went to a point where it hurt, straining their throats.   
Some kids limped out of there alone, while others needed someone to hold on to. They’re petrified, traumatized by the sight of the attacker.   
Although, months earlier, Venom attacked the school, they were never the primary targets… but this attack felt different. Felt like a reckless act of violence.  
Captain George Stacy panicked, shivers sent down his spine and all… knowing to try his best to suppress it. He helped any student he could, while his eyes searched for Gwen.   
“GWEN! GWEN HONEY… WHERE ARE YOU?”  
The police captain kept seeing grim images of injured and panicked high-schoolers rushing past him.   
“DAD?!” These images of children spiked his worries, till he heard his daughter call for him. She left Mary Jane’s and Glory’s side and rushed over to him and embraced him as tight as she could, probably squeezing a rib or two.   
“Gwen! Honey, you’re alright!”  
“I’m fine, dad, but everyone else needs help”  
“I’ll get everyone else help, young lady, you go in the car”  
“Captain, please help me find my sons,” Jefferson pleaded.  
“Okay, Officer Davis… I’ll help, but I also need to help these kids”  
Then more students came out of the school, especially the likes of Sally, Flash, Sha Shan, and Rand. Moments after, Peter and Liz made it out of the building, and a couple more students escaped. Then no one came out.  
More police officers raided through the doors of the school to see if there's any survivors left behind.  
“Kids, have you seen my sons?!”  
“Who?”  
“MILES AND HOBIE!”  
“Saw Miles earlier, but I didn’t see him leave,” one student mentioned.  
“OH GOODNESS! Crap, crap, crap! MILES’S STILL THERE!”  
Right before he ran inside the school, he heard a familiar voice, “Dad?!”  
Jefferson turned to see his son, Miles appear in front of him, “Oh Miles, you’re here… where’s Hobie.”  
“Don’t dad, I tried finding him, but kids said that he was getting chased by the attackers”  
“Oh goodness, Hobie. Where could’ve he gone?”  
Liz’s attention diverted when she witnessed Sally’s body laid on that retched stretcher. She never imagined in all her life that she’d see her best friend being on a stretcher. Heck, they only thought that this could be possible when they eventually perished, seconds apart, as they hoped. But Liz grew worried for her friend, seeing her being wheeled into the ambulance haunted her.   
What if she didn’t make it out? What if she could never say goodbye to Sally? What if ?...  
But Liz snapped out of those possibilities. She didn’t want to picture any of that in her head, it’s too painful. She turned to Peter, and softly requested, “Petey, come with me to Manhattan General, please? I need to check on Sally and… I know you two don’t have the best relationship and-”  
“Alright, I’ll go with you! Plus, I don’t think it’s safe to walk alone, especially after tonight,” he agreed with her request, leading to a small smile on her face.

Fisk Community Center 

As the guests were having a good time at the party, drinking away with the champagne, business was inevitable, especially during a busy Friday night.   
His buzzing phone interrupted Fisk’s associate, James Wesley’s fun night. He excused himself and discretely answered the phone.  
“What is it?”  
“We have here a problem!” Shocker admitted on the call.  
“Did you handle Brown?”  
“Nah. He kept moving like crazy, now we got witnesses”  
Wesley took a deep breath to ease his frustrations with the two. He didn’t want to let his calm demeanor down because of a mishap.  
“We said, keep it under the radar,” Wesley emphasized.  
“It’s too late for that, ain’t it?”  
“Any law enforcement coming?”   
“Not sure… wouldn’t doubt it. Gotta get us outta here, Wesley”  
“Alright then, we’ll send a copter to pick both of you up… we’ll deal with you later,” he infuriatingly ended the call. He knew his boss wouldn’t like that they didn’t finish the job. Then he sought for Wilson through the crowds of guests, and pulled Wilson aside from any of his guests, “Sir, we have a situation.”  
Fisk sounded concerned, “What is it?”  
His associate explained, “It looks like Black Cat and Shocker have drawn too much attention to themselves and officers are on the way.”  
“That’s unfortunate, but did they at least get Brown?”  
“No, sir”  
Immediately Fisk got infuriated by the news he’s told. He gave those two hooligans only one job, and they still screwed up.   
“Get them out of there now! Tell officers, if they see Mr. Brown, put a bullet in him,” the Kingpin ordered.  
“On it, sir.” Wesley immediately went to action, pulling some strings to do what the situation needed. 

A few moments later, the helicopter that was sent, landed on top of the rough turf of the football field.   
“There’s our ticket out! C’mon Cat, let’s get going outta here. Wait-”  
Montana turned around to see no snow-haired woman beside him, which confused him. He took a moment to search around for his accomplice, till he heard more of the thunderous police sirens, roaring down the streets.  
“Gotta go… without her, I guess. Man, Fisk ain’t gonna like this,” he mentioned as he climbed the ladder as the helicopter flew above the burning school. 

Manhattan General Hospital 

Everything felt like chaos once Peter entered through those automatic doors. Many medical workers rushed past him, wheeling his classmates into the hospital. So many of them, rushing back and forth, back and forth, and the cycle continued. Everything around him went so fast. People rushing left and right. It was all a hectic blur, making him nauseous. Then he saw some of those students, unconscious, barely holding on to dear life, while nurses checked other students like Rand, and Flash, to ensure that there weren't more external injuries.  
Don’t know what intensified Peter’s headache more, the exposure to thick smoke and dust, or the exposure to the guilt he put upon himself, by witnessing all these hurt people and their worried families.  
‘None of this would’ve happened if Spider-Man was there. Midtown would’ve been safe, and Shocker and Black Cat would be in a cell. He could’ve had a fun night, with his friends, with Liz… but it didn’t happen.   
Sometimes you wish you could change the past, prevent yourself from making that very mistake, but you can’t, unfortunately-  
NO NO NO! I’m happy with the life I’m living right now!   
I’m finally happy, for once! And I’m happy with my choice!’ It felt like his thoughts were arguing with each other, like an old married couple.  
He had to sit down, or else his head would explode.   
Everything was a daze… a muddled pool of right, wrong, and swirled in there was guilt. Doesn’t sound like the greatest drink in the world. But it was all confusing and irritating.   
Why can’t he have what he wanted?  
Suddenly, Liz softly called out to him, “Petey.” She sat down next to him, with tears in her eyes as she leaned her head on Peter’s shoulder.   
“This wasn’t the way I thought this night would go, Petey”  
“Feelings mutual”  
“Like Sally’s going to surgery right now, Flash and Rand’s arms broke… and our gym’s destroyed… everything’s ruined today”  
Immediately, Peter went to comfort her, wrapping his arms around her. He held her close as her tears fell from her face. She felt like the world ended that night, with hellfire reigning from the sky.   
“You know Petey, when I saw the school from afar, it looked like nothing happened. But inside, it was like Mark torched the place,” her chin rested on his shoulder.  
“I don’t think Mark would-”  
“I’ve seen him throw lava balls at you, anything’s possible. And I haven’t been able to call in prison, cause of behavioral issues,” Liz sadly explained. She pulled away from his embrace and rested her head on his shoulder. His date sniffled and breathed stagnantly, while her head laid on the shoulder.   
‘This is all your fault, Parker! Wait, no!   
You made your choice, to live your own life… gotta deal with the consequences.   
NO!   
That’s a horrible thing to say!   
Well, it’s true, right?’ All these thoughts rushed into his head, like they were guilting him.  
Then his phone buzzed in his pocket, so he wiggled it out of it, and saw a text message from his Aunt.   
‘Peter, are you alright? I saw on the news what happened. Please come home.’ - Aunt May

‘CRAP! She’s getting worried, and I kept her waiting. Wait, it’s only 8:49, I can stay a little longer, Liz needs me… no wait, Aunt May needs me home… C’mon Parker, DECIDE!’  
But how could he leave his date, Ms. Liz Allan? He knew it would be an awful choice if he’d leave her in her current state of worry. She’s especially frantic and anxiety ridden for her best friend, Sally Avril.  
But he also knew he needed to make it home, or else his Aunt would start worrying. HECK! She’s probably worried already by watching the news.   
Peter’s in a bind that he didn’t know the best way to get out of. ‘Neither way, I’m screwed!’  
“Uh-Liz,” he softly called for her attention. Her large, amber eyes turned to him, and gave him the ‘puppy eyes.’ Dammit!   
It was like a weakness to Peter, especially if it’s a fairly attractive woman. It was paralyzing… especially for a hormonal teenager.  
“Liz, I-I um, gotta go… my Aunt’s gonna kill me i-if I’m late…” his words stammered.  
“Petey! Please… stay. I need you right now. Please,” she reached for his hand as she pleaded.   
His eyes and his speech stammered, “I-I uh… ahem. I can’t. My Aunt will worry.” He rose off his seat. “You don’t deserve this,” he added.   
“Petey…” she softly mouthed as he left.  
He headed for the exits of Manhattan General, with the guilt chasing after him.   
‘Great! She’s gonna hate me again!’ he sighed to himself.

Parker’s Residence

A worried Aunt May paced around the living room and fidgeted with her fingers. The news was in the background, informing about any developments of the school attack.   
‘DING DONG’ the doorbell sounded.  
She quickly opened the front door, to see her nephew. He appeared unkempt and smelled like he’s been smoking. But that's none of her concerns at that moment. He was home, and that’s all that mattered.  
“Oh my, are you alright, Dear? I heard what happened on the news,” His Aunt pulled him into a warm hug, relieved that he’s okay.   
“I’m fine, Aunt May… probably just a bruise, that’s all”  
“A BRUISE?! We must put ice on that”  
“No need to panic, Aunt May, it’s minor”  
“Well, what about your classmates? Oh my, is your date okay?”  
“She’s… fine. She’s just waiting for her friend in the hospital”  
“Oh my! I can’t believe lunatics would attack a school dance? Who would do such an act?”   
Peter sat there, silent, knowing exactly who did such an act.  
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Spider-Man could’ve stopped these… people from destroying the school. But we drove him away,” she added.   
“He couldn’t stop them, Aunt May”  
“I believe that man could. I’ve seen him take on 6 men at once”  
“Don’t think it’s that easy,” he murmured.  
“How would you know about that, Dear?”  
“Well- um- I… used to take pictures of him. He’s not that strong in person”  
“Oh, I nearly forgot that you worked in the Bugle, with that Mr. Jameson. And that you’ve had your experiences with Spider-Man”  
“Yeah, he’s quite the personality,” Peter snarky mentioned.   
“Who? Mr. Jameson or Spider-Man?”  
“Both,” he smiled at her.  
She turned away for a minute to give Peter a snack, assuming that he didn’t have the best meal.   
“Uh-Aunt May… weird question. Um- do you think Spider-Man’s a hero?” he abruptly asked.  
“Dear, I don’t know what to think about him. At first, he’s a masked vigilante running around our streets. Usually men who wear masks have something to hide… but something about him is different. His mask inspires these people to do good… his mask represents something I can’t describe… but it’s something good.”  
“Oh…”  
“Did that answer your question, honey?”  
“Uh-um… yeah. Yes, it did”  
“Good. It’s getting late dear, time to go to bed, especially after the night you had”  
“Yeah… alright. Goodnight, Aunt May. Love you!”  
“Goodnight, Peter. I love you too.”  
He ran up the stairs and went into his room. ‘This wasn’t the way I thought my night would go,’ Peter thought as he got ready for the night.  
Then he was about to get changed into his warm pajamas and get ready for bed, till he heard a faint vibration come from his phone.   
Peter thought nothing of it at first, till he heard more buzzing from the phone which he checked on it. He got a text message from Hobie Brown. He’d never expect for him to text him in the middle of the night, so something must be up.

‘Peter, can we meet up at the law firm tomorrow? We need to talk.’ - Hobie

‘About?’ - Peter

‘We’ll talk about it there, please just meet me there’ - Hobie

‘What does he need to talk about that’s so serious? Now I seriously didn’t see this coming… at all tonight!’ Peter thought as he facepalmed, trying to wrap his head around what happened that night. 

To Be Continued… 

To address the comments from the previous chapters. (2/23/21)

Fanfiction.com

JohnJuanRamboJr35: It’s good to see that your still posting and your doing good through this crisis  
Of course, what else am I going to do with my time? Joking aside, I hoped these fic are actually helping during this time of despair. - TheTypingAvocado

Guest: Amazing. I like to point out Black cat isn't the type of character to do something like in the series as she's dubbed as an anti-hero unless you intend to make her realize it's wrong. And to answer your question about Otto it's unclear whether he ended up in prison or went back to doctor Kafka for therapy. If the focus of the story is the corruption of New York, then I recommend at least make it similar to the second half of insomniac spider man PS4 where spider mans enemies are running lose and taking advantage of his absence. But overall keep it up.  
Ah thanks mate! I didn’t know what exactly happened to Doc Ock. But the corruption will run wild. Now the other gangs and enemies of Spider-Man are being held in Rykers, although they’d be aware of Spidey’s retirement. But the thing about this is that the Kingpin won’t allow them to be free, and he has resources to make that happen. He will take out anything that gets in his way of restructuring New York. - TheTypingAvocado

The Codister: Oooooooooooo boy, looks like Peter Parker is gonna come out of retirement early. And man you actually got me with that almost kiss between Liz and Pete there.  
AHAHA, I hoped it didn’t throw you off! That’s Parker luck for you, wrong place or wrong time. I hope you enjoyed the chapter! - TheTypingAvocado

Guest: Awesome. I guess Harry's resentment towards Pete is gonna intensify and according to the creators, harry develop a hatred towards spider man after normans apparent demise as part of his personality in season 3 though you should do a flashback of Gwen breaking up with harry. Kingpin must be up to something if he invited tombstone to his party or just to gloat and tombstones operations are crippled for the time being. In my opinion Pete and Liz do have a lot of chemistry together and make a cute couple.  
I believe Kingpin invited Tombstone to gloat, and to show how flawed Tombstone’s plan for a criminal empire was. And yes, Gwen & Harry’s breakup will be addressed later! And I agree, I do like Peter & Liz, hopefully I portrayed their relationship well! - TheTypingAvocado 

Spidey-Boy21: This chapter was so good! Lets get spidey back tho he's needed!  
Appreciate the compliment! And yes, our hero must return! - TheTypingAvocado

Guest: I hope there are a lot of chapters from 30 to 40 or a least you're making a series. I love the spectacular spider man series.  
Whoa, that’s a lot of chapters! I’ve only planned 5 more chapters, including this chapter! - TheTypingAvocado

Archive of Our Own:

Guest: Your story is AMAZING! It's gettin' me pumped for Chapter 7. Any plans to introduce Harry as the new Green Goblin or maybe introducing the Hobgoblin?  
Well, I’m glad that you’re excited for this chapter! My plans for Harry will happen around the end of the fic. I believe it would be too late to introduce a villain, but hopefully there’s set up for a villain in a sequel fic. - TheTypingAvocado  
AvidWriter14: Wow, love the story so far.  
Glad you do mate! Please stay tuned for more chapters! - TheTypingAvocado

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Message from the Author, TheTypingAvocado:   
> If you couldn’t recognize the first part of this chapter, this is from chapter 2 of this fic, but from Black Cat’s perspective. She’s working with Fisk, to get her father free. Now I’m not trying to portray her as a villain (that was never my intent), but she’ll do whatever it takes to save her father, even working for Fisk. But she seems conflicted at the end once she abandons Shocker. So hopefully you understand what I’m doing with her character.   
> Hobie’s on the run and contacts Peter, and Peter abandons Liz to make it to not worry his aunt Lot’s of things happened in this chapter, and I hoped you enjoyed them.   
> Please leave constructive criticism in this chapter and future chapters. It helps me a lot. :) 
> 
> Next Chapter: Chapter 8 Memory


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